Strip My Mind
by ratchetthe1s
Summary: After 17 days of this, I'm ready. Ready for revenge. Not just on the scum that hold me here... but on the Prince himself. I'm coming for you Tachyon… Just as soon as I get out of these chains...
1. Chains of Villainy

Hello everyone! this is my second fanfic, a massive step up from my last one 'The Markazian and the Lombax'. Completely different storyline, and these two fics are not related to one another, only minor cameos may appear in this fic. There's a bit of an explanation of the game so that if you know nothing about the Ratchet and Clank universe, you can still read this!

About the story itself, it's gonna be long, so prepare for weekly chapters like this one! And the title may change, but it's unlikely since it's growing on me although it has almost nothing to do with the story... so far ;)

I obviously don't own Ratchet and Clank - Insomniac Games/Sony do but I felt like I should add that anyway.

Now, I'm putting a TONNE of effort into this so it'd be really nice to have some reviews and stuff :3 I'm always up for a chat too if you want to PM me :3

Now, without further rambling here it is!

* * *

**"Please don't strip my mind... Leave something behind... Please don't strip my mind" **- Red Hot Chili Peppers, 'Strip My Mind'

* * *

I spat on the ground as they asked me the same question. Over and over, everyday, I almost couldn't stand it. They punched me in the gut when I didn't answer. Same place as yesterday, where a massive bruise lay. One that wouldn't heal for a while I guessed. I cringed slightly at the pain, but ignored the interrogators in front of me. They hammered me again and I tasted blood in my mouth where I bit my tongue. A metallic coppery taste, the only thing I'd tasted in days. I had got used to it eventually, but my tastebuds had grown old of it too. They shouted at me again, telling me to wake up, and proceeded to forcibly open my eyelids. My eyes adjusted quickly to the dim light and my first sight of the afternoon were my interrogators. The most filthiest scum in this dimension. The Kerchu. A Kerchu gang to be precise, a Rival gang to the one they think I'm part of. They punched me again, this time in the jaw. A heavy hit that could easily dislocate some species neck, but not mine. I had been through this before.

"OI! I'm talking you filthy piece of shit! Why did they send you!?" The boss of the two shouted at me. He stepped forward, coming face to face with me. His saliva splatted all over my face as he spoke with the same disgruntled voice I'd heard since I got here. "If Mr Ghregshuir wasn't so intent on getting this answer, I would've dropped you down the Slop-Hole long ago! Now tell me, WHO SENT YOU!"

"I've told you before. 'They' didn't send me, my ship crashed onto this planet" I replied calmly, hiding the small amount of fear, and the larger amount of anger that was building up inside of me.

"Is that really the truth?" He sneered through his buck teeth, walking back to his friend slowly.

"Yes."

"Well then I'm afraid we got a little liar cat…" He said, walking over to a firehose that was hanging off the nearest wall. A fat, long red one that was looped up for miles on end. This particular hose was loaded with a clear, acidic liquid that would not corrode, but irritate the skin. A low level torture device, and he shot it right at me.

I was dripping by the end of it, skin red under my brown fur. I struggled against the chains to try and itch my burning red skin, but to no avail. He saw the irritation on my face and laughed. A cruel snicker of a laugh, evil and dark. He slowly stepped towards me again.

"Now, I'm going to ask you one more time. WHO SENT YOU AND WHY!"

"I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU, YOU DENSE BASTARD. YOU'VE GOT IT WRONG." I screamed. There was silence as the two goons stared at me in shock. They had never seen me shout before, and were not expecting it. He quickly regained his composure, as did his co-worker, erasing the fear off their faces.

"Well, well, well. The brown kitties got a bit of' bite" He smirked "You haven't been this loud before. What else are you holding in…" He kicked me in the hip, missing his intended target as I swayed to the left a bit.

"Hah! Want kids do ya?" They both sniggered like children who were bullying the weaker kid. "Now now, we don't need more of you scum in this galaxy" He took aim with his fist and thrusted it towards me. I dodged again, and he hit my thigh.

"Not a very good shot, are you?" I smirked. One of the very few times I ever enjoy life nowadays.

"Shut it!" He yelled. "Take out the new… Experiment" He said to his friend, who walked off into the back room to get it. This had me worried. Every week or so they'd bring out a new torture device. The first were limb clamps which were worn around, yep, you guessed it: The limbs. They would squeeze tight, and stay there, and they kept them on me for a week. My arms had felt shrivelled and weak since then, and for my own sake I had decided to try regain muscle but pulling on the chains as a substitute for weights, and to my surprise, was working a bit, until they brought out the second experiment. It was an advanced drug they injected into my arm. I had various hallucinations in my dreams, very realistic ones too, then to wake me up, it raised the temperature of my blood, boiling me from the inside. I feared the next item of torture they were going to use me as a guinea pig for.

"Say hello to the Frexectic-12" He said, as the second guy handed him a black pistol. "You wanna know what it does?"

"Not if it means killing me" I answered his rhetorical question calmly

"I'll show you anyway!" He grunted, annoyed at my witty response

He aimed at my neck and shot. I only caught sight of it for a split second. a blurry, deep blue blob shape It hit hard, then wrapped itself around me. Slimy and cold, it felt disgusting

"It's what we call 'Live Ice'. It wraps around the… 'users' neck, and slowly strangles them! Although, for you, we've set it to 'Strangle, but let live' And I'll leave it on repeat for a special 10 minutes. So, lets start that part of the demonstration…" He flicked a switch on the gun and I felt intense pressure around my neck. I struggled for air as the blue slime tightened. My heart was beating. I was feeling drowsy. Everything went bright, and I was struggling against the chains. I tried to keep calm but failed to do so. It was now, I was versing death, and this time, I thought I couldn't escape. I was on what I thought would be my last breath we I heard a small click and the slimeball stopped, returning to it's relaxed position. I breathed heavily for a moment, sucking in as much oxygen as my lungs could take to get my mind working again. Half a minute later I heard his voice taunting me.

"How did you like that huh? Well, you seemed to be enjoying yourself, lets go through it again…"

My eyes widened for a second as he smiled and moved his hand over the switch.

Click.

My throat closed, but I remained calm, at least, for the first 20 seconds. I started struggling against the chains again. My heart racing to keep me alive. It seemed quicker this time, which I was pleased about. The pressure faded and I chugged in a lung full of oxygen again.

"Well well well, you haven't blacked out, nor died… impressive, so guess what…"

Click.

The same symptoms struck again, but with less intensity as I was slowly getting used to it. I hatched a plan to fake the struggle to see if it would end it earlier. With at least half a lung full of air,l started struggling on purpose, hoping his reaction would be the same. I kept control of my actions this time, not wanting too actually struggle. I hated facing death like this. Dying by lack of air was the way of death I feared most, not that i was going to let them know that. The pressure once again stopped as a peculiar motif played throughout the building. The one signalling tonight's dinner and not for the first time I wondered if I'd get anything tonight.

"Well, you've survived Lombax! But now, as you may have just heard, it's time for dinner!"

My stomach grumbled at the thought of food. It had been long since I'd had a proper meal, only once had the thug brought down a thin slice of pork, which I gobbled up.

He clicked the trigger and the gelatinous goop flung off me back into the sleek piece of black metal he was holding in his left hand.  
"Now, I'm sure there will be at least 13 people who will be happy with today's outcome, Mr Ghregshuir included. We had tested this on small animals already, but theres nothing like testing it for real…" he snickered and handed the gun to his friend. Before he left, he came up to me, resting his small hand on my shoulder.

"We'll see you tomorrow, Lombax. hang tight" He spoke, fluent with sarcasm before breaking into a laugh.

"Will do" I replied, trying to match his tone through my worn throat. "Have a nice day, and don't be late tomorrow!"

"Hah, like I would be" He growled, walking away. I'd tried to annoy him but had failed, only just.I couldn't wait to pound those two in the near future, it was something I had thought about often lately: What I was going to do to them when I got out of here.

If, I got out of here.

The co-worker flicked two switches by the back door. One, moved me to the same position it did every night; over the Slop-Hole, and the second, the lightswitch, so the only thing I could see, was the toxic green sludge below me. I started doing what had become a kind of ritual after they left. A spoken journal of sorts, which consisted of me quietly speaking to myself.

'Day 17, Interrogation 29. The goons punched me in the same spots already searing with pain, and soaked me with irritating acid, which is really pissing me off right now. Then proceed to strangle me multiple times with their new fiend of living ice. How fun. Oh, and it was the first time I yelled! 17 days and 29 interrogations, I think I did pretty well holding out for that long. but overall, it was just another night at the lowest level in the Gelatonium Refinery on planet Jasindu.'

I finished talking to myself with a sigh, closed my eyes, and entered my thoughts.

My mind drifted off towards my two best friends. People whom I had known my whole life, except for about 47 seconds mum had always said with a laugh. I smiled at the good things and promised myself like I did every night that I would get out of here. I relaxed my muscles as much as I could and swung around on the chains a bit. The soft chink of the metal braces colliding with each other was rather peaceful after hearing that guys horrible voice for 20 minutes. I leaned my head back and tried for sleep, something that was pretty precious for me at this place, since I never usually got any of it because of this uncomfortable position I was in. My thoughts drifted off into my mind after a short time of trying to get to sleep, 3 hours been short under the circumstances.

I saw my best mates, one reading on her bed, whilst the other had fallen asleep on his hammock. I picked up a pillow and threw it at him, unbalancing the hammock, causing it to twist and drop it's user.

"Oi that's it, this time, you're getting it" he said chucking the pillow, square at my forehead. My reflexes were quick to react I caught the pillow mid flight, only to see another one coming this way. Unprepared, I was hit by the feathery case and spun about, faking a death. The man in front of me laughed, whilst the woman reading just rolled her eyes and muttered 'boys...' We both laughed at that, and he held out his hand to help me up. I took it, and instantly felt my arm being pulled off as he jolted me upwards.

"Thanks" I smiled at him.

"You're welcome" He said, returning the friendly smile and we made our way over to the-

I woke up as I heard shots fired from above me, screams and shouts from the Kerchu above me.

"Don't let him get to the other one!" and "Kill the Lombax!" Was all I heard from all the carnage above.

Lombax? That meant me. They were going to kill me right here and right now because of some unexpected 'visitor'.

"Shit" I muttered as I started struggling against my chains. My last hours were upon me.

* * *

I had my Combustor in my right hand, and my Fusion Grenade in my left for extra firepower as I stormed through the building. Ammo was everywhere, probably for this exact situation, only, not for me, but I took it anyway. The Smuggler had said something about a weapon that used stolen technology he had found. For it, he offered me a ship, one that had landed here 17 days ago. It wasn't just any ship though, he said it was a Lombax ship. I asked to see before I got it but all he did was say no and assure me I'd get the ship, and some bolts. Upon accepting the offer, Clank said I shouldn't take this deal since the Smuggler wasn't trustworthy. But, with nothing better to do, I ran into this building, poorly armed and facing the toughest Kerchu on the planet. The bigger part of the Kerchu population were small humanoid creatures, with beaver like faces and short legs. They were very smart, but very territorial. From what I heard they liked no one, except of course, some few who had good connections, and apparently, the Smuggler fitted into that group.

I charged the first gang member I saw, shoved him to the ground, and put my hands around his neck.

"Tell me" I growled, sounding intimidating. "Where is the F-12?"

"I-I. I don't know what you mean…" He played dumb. I saw right through it and tightened my grasp, cutting off his windpipe that ran through his small neck.

"Tell me." I finalised. Wanting to get this over and done with quick.

"Le- le- level 12 Minus!" he yelled to get the message out. I smiled, a genuine smile. and let go of his neck.

"Thanks!" I spoke, hand sliding down to grab my wrench. In one swift movement, I banged him over the head, and knocked him cold. Looking around, I saw some stairs at the far end of the corridor. I ran towards them, trying to speed through this mission, and fly away with a new ship. I nearly lost balance when the first step came because the were so thin, forcing me to walk down. Reaching the next level, I looked around and saw about 40 Kerchu, gathered around tables, laughing, shouting, and now looking at me in silence. They all stood up, looking at me with menacing eyes, and pulling their guns out. Thanks to quick thinking, I pulled out a grenade, and threw it into the crowd to grab a few extra seconds, and continued to flee down the stairs. The stairs themselves had widened up a bit, and now had a rail, most likely to stop people falling off to the side since the bottom of this facility was now visible. I decided to use the rail to my advantage, and jumped onto it.

My Grindboots automatically became active as they sensed a grindable terrain and sent me speeding down the stairway. The corners were sharp and I braced myself for the sudden change in direction. Leaning to the left. It made the switch of momentum flow easier and I thanked my lucky stars I had been practising this extreme sport since it first came out.

I looked behind me, and saw that the Kerchu had their own way of getting down. Half of them had curled up into metal balls and were zooming down the stairs like it was a game of pinball. The fewer heavy types turned to the elevator. They were shouting through their armour whilst rolling down after me.

"Stop"

"Don't let him get to the other one!"

"Kill the Lombax!"

"Kill him before the 12th level!"

Other one? That confused me for a second. I pushed the thought away for now as a looked back again and saw they were hot on my tail.

"Ratchet! They are close!" Clank shouted above all the commotion "Lean forward to increase your speed!"

"Will do. Thanks Pal" I shouted back, and did at he said, whilst turning my head around to check what was ahead of me. I looked just a moment too late as the heavies that hopped into the elevator, had already made it down in front of me. I smashed into the outstretched arm of the one closest to me, and fell backward off the rail, and onto a couch. A soft landing I was grateful for. Somewhat dazed, I stood up off the couch and picked up my Combustor which I had dropped on the landing, and aimed it as the heavy closest to me.

He charged, fists covering his face to avoid getting shot badly. I dived out of the way, and shot him up the arse which caused him to trip, and crack his head on the brick wall. I focused my attention on the other three, which had now cornered me into this little cove of an office. They slowly walked like they knew I couldn't get out, but I had other ideas.

I threw a grenade at the ground, causing it to explode on impact. It stunned them and fazed their sight. I took this distraction and ran towards the middle one. By the time he saw me it was too late. I had already leapt at him. The tackle threw him backwards, and I quickly got up off him, and ran for the stairs, making sure to step on his face as I left the brick cove.

I jumped up back onto the rail and continued racing onwards, this time without pursuers. It was only a few more seconds before I reached level minus 12. The bottom point, 120 feet below ground level. I looked up to find myself surrounded, guns pointing at me from all directions.

"No need for any killing Lombax. put your weapons down, and come quietly. I'm sure Mr Ghregshuir will want to see you as well as your friend." The one who spoke had a gun unlike the others, sleek and black, much like the description the smuggler had given me. I'd take him out first, but before that, I knew how the situation would play out. Taunting, then fighting - so I ravished my brain for a witty response.

"Sure, I'll put my weapons down your throat, not sure if it will be quiet tho, but-" I was cut off mid sentence but something grabbing my throat. My hands went towards it to force it off, but they were soon held back by the other two heavies I escaped from before. Just before I blacked, I had one last thought.

'Bloody gangsters. Never playing by the rules'.

* * *

I stared in shock at the being chained up next to me. Sandy yellow fur, with three light brown stripes on each of his massive cat like ears ears. He wore a peach leather shirt, that had dark blue stripes down the sides. A harness was around his with what seemed to be a lock on the back which puzzled me. Why would he need that? He had two green lights planted on him; one on the harness, and the other on his belt, both now broken by the thugs that had captured him. He wore dark blue cargo pants, which tucked into his leather boots. He also wore leather gloves that went past his elbow. Everything about him screamed 'Adventure' but the thing that most intrigued me was his race.

He was a lombax.

There's another? Was my first thought after studying him. As far as I knew, Tachyon had gone round the universe, erasing us from existence. Everywhere my friends and I went, the people around us were always in shock, hence why we decided to settle down on the more uncharted area of Tlekelimn. Tachyon hated the Lombaxes for a reason that was unbeknown to my friends and I, but we avoided him anyway. I wondered how this Lombax had escaped him all these years. He looked about my age, strong build, athletic like he could run around for hours. I couldn't wait till he woke up, but at the same time I was dreading it. I hadn't spoken to another Lombax for 3 weeks, since I saw my best friends get captured by the prince himself.

I shook the thought off and composed myself. I didn't want to break down on this guy. I didn't want to make a bad first impression. I waited nervously, not wanting to wake him up. But at the same time I was getting all the more eager to meet this new Lombax.

Half an hour passed before his head rose slowly, coming out of the deep sleep the thugs put him in. He yawned first before speaking like someone would if they had just gotten out of bed.

"Clank? You got that fluextranser ready?"

I was slightly afraid to talk. Who was Clank? It definitely wasn't me…

"Clank?" He said louder, opening his eyes slowly. As his vision locked on to the sights around him, the look of shock on his face was prominent.

"Clank!?" He shouted, voice full of worry now, he strained against the chains, but he still hadn't seen me. I thought now was the right time to say hi. But I couldn't think of what to say. Just 'hi'? Or something about Lombaxes. I ended up speaking out the question that was ringing through my head.

"Who's Clank?" I blurted before I could stop myself.

He jumped at the sounds of my voice, and looked around. He then went into another phase of shock as he saw me. After looking up and down, grabbing every detail from me, he spoke.

"You're a Lombax."

"Yes, and so are you." I remarked

"How did you get here?"

"Crash landed. I'll tell you the details later, we've got plenty of time for a chat, but first. Whats your name?"  
"Ratchet." A look of confusion covered my face. "What's wrong?" He asked. A genuine question.

"You're name isn't anything like I've heard before - for Lombaxes at least. Normally that would be a nickname, since it's a tool..."

"Well, that's my name, as far as I know... What's yours?"

"Amel Mecktose" I said with pride, although not knowing anything to be proud of about my family heritage since I never knew them that well. But I heard some stories…

"Well, to me that sounds like a funny name."

"Well, I guess every name is different." Was all I said, not wanting to get into a fight within minutes just over something as stupid as our names.

"So, whats your story?" I asked, eager to learn more about this new person. "I'll tell you what I know afterwards" I smiled at the thought. Talking! Something that's been a rarity for 3 weeks.

"Well... How much do you want to know?" He asked. I had to contain my joy. I've never met another Lombax before, aside from my friends, but I knew everything about them. But this guy had a new story for me to listen to. I couldn't wait to find out more.

"Just give me your life story, I'll give you mine. As you can tell, there's no way out of here, so we've got plenty of time."

"Haha, true. So... I'll tell you what I know.

When I was very young, I landed on planet Veldin in an escape pod. A woman there, Jewel, adopted me on the spot, and took care of me throughout my childhood. She always said 'When I opened your pod up and found you in it. You were holding two things; Mr. Plushy and a wrench that was bigger than you! You wouldn't let me take either of those from your grasp, so I named you after the Ratchet' So that's where my name came from… Even though it was a wrench, not a ratchet. She want much of a mechanic..."

I nodded, understanding now about why he seemed so foreign. It left me eager to find out more about him. He continued his story

"From what I remember, my childhood was all mechanics. I loved it, as I do now. No one on Veldin knew anything about Lombaxes, much less what my species name actually was. I only found that out when I was 10, and some guy came around offering to buy me. Over the years, I grew slightly rebellious, but popular against everyone in school. There was one enemy I had though. Varl. Ugly looking guy. Anyway, by the time I was 15 I had built my own ship, and I was eager to get off the planet. But I was missing a crucial component of the ship, the Robotic Ignition System. And that's when Clank, my best friend, crash landed on Veldin. I went to investigate after seeing the crash from a distance. I found him in the wreckage. He was in a shutdown mode, so I picked him up and took him home to tweak my ship a bit. When he woke up, he made me fall off a crate when he first spoke and it turned out he knew this guy called Drek, was ruining the solar system. Clank had a Robotic Ignition System installed on him so we came to an agreement. I help him find Captain Qwark, this 'superhero' and he helps me get my ship working. We found Qwark after a short while of investigating, but then found out that he was working with Drek, because he tried to kill us. Fuelled on my new hatred for Qwark, I stayed with clank only so I could use the ships we found. Eventually, we found Qwark again, and took him down in a ship battle, but afterwards I learnt fully of Drek's true intentions - Destroy every planet in the solar system for his kind, and he was going to use Veldin orbit for it. We quickly got to Drek, just as he was about to blow up Veldin, destroyed him and his mech and used his machine to destroy the planet he had made."

"So you're like a hero!?" I exclaimed, even more excited than I was before.

"Yeah, pretty much. But that's not the half of it.

After that whole adventure, we settled down back on Veldin for a year. Nothing was happening and I was bored, but it was when a popular holo-vision show 'Behind the Hero' decided to interview me was when I got my next job. Abercrombie Fizzwidget, the CEO of a company called Megacorp in the Bogon galaxy asked me to recapture 'The Experiment' which was stolen from the company a week before. I found the Thief, and got the experiment back, but ran into him again shortly after I had given the experiment back to Fizzwidget. Turned out the thief was a woman who was a Lombax. She told me that the experiment was meant to be a galaxy wide pet, but it was pretty much a killer machine. In the end, we got to the Megacorp facility, and tried to fix it since the 'pet' had been released, but Fizzwidget stopped us. It turned out that Qwark was in a suit, acting as the CEO, and putting the galaxy in danger on purpose, then he'd save it and regain his hero status. His plan backfired, and Clank and I ended up saving the galaxy."

"Intergalactic hero now is it?" I smirked, now slightly jealous.

"Haha, Yeah, although it still doesn't stop there...

Clank and I then settled down on Endako, in the Bogon Galaxy since Megacorp had given it to us at the start of the mission. After a year, we had settled into a more domestic life. Clank and I were watching some HV after a game of chess, when a news report came on saying Veldin was under attack. I had been building a warp drive out of Blargian scrap metal and decided to use it. It was untested but I had to get home, to save Veldin. We got back to Solana within seconds, it had worked perfectly even though Clank said it was unlikely. After saving Veldin, I had an offer to stay at the Starship Phoenix to help put a stop to a new menace. Dr. Nefarious. A robotic supervillain who had only been defeated by one man. That man was rumoured to be on Florana, but when we got to him, we found out that it was no other, than Captain Qwark. He had totally lost his mind, so we brought him back to the Phoenix. Eventually he regained his memory, but he then 'took control' of the Nefarious situation. Later, he wimped out and faked his death, and Clank and I found out what had really happened in Qwarks past. He was pretty much a fraud. So, we continued on without him. Nefarious had a plan to turn all organic life into robots, so we found out where his Bio-Blitorator was and took it out, but he had a second. When we went off to the final showdown, Qwark came out of nowhere and aided us in the fight, which didn't help that much, but was good for him in the end. Nefarious teleported out of the mech just in time, but ended up on a small asteroid which is now out of range. I then stayed at the Starship Phoenix for a year, which in that year I got promoted to the commander of the ship. Nearing the end of the year I got a transmission from the previous Commander who is the mayor of Metropolis, saying that there was an illegal combat sport show called Dreadzone, and just as she mentioned the show, they were at my heels and took me captive. I fought my way through the show, taking down all four exterminators until I was at the top. I was offered a proposition to be the top gladiator of the entire show by Gleeman Vox, the madman running the whole thing. He got angry when I turned him down and sent me off to an 'unbeatable' course. I beat it and blew it up. When I got back to the main station, I planned with my team to shut down The whole thing. We almost succeeded until Vox tried to kill me and put a timer on the show, which if it reached zero, the entire station would blow up. After I just about killed him, he blew the station up anyway but Clank got me out in a escape shuttle seconds before it exploded, I was very lucky. From then, I've just been chilling. Two years of cruising around Kerwan, living a more domestic life, and inventing things. And that's when some guy called 'Emperor Percival Tachyon' attack-"

"Tachyon!?"

"Yeah... He tried to kill me. But I escaped onto one of his ships. Do you know him?"

"Apparently he's the bane of the Lombaxes… But finish your story, we'll , uh... talk about him later."

"Okay… Well, Clank and I got onto one of his ships, but cryosleep got the better of me, and we crash landed on planet Cobalia where I met this guy who I only know as The Smuggler. He said he'd give me a ride to Jacindu where he had a ship for me, if I could complete one more task. I said yes, eager to be able to travel on my own, and because I needed a ship. We landed he and he said I needed to infiltrate a Kerchu hideout and steal a black gun called the 'F-12' or something, so I stormed this place. I got to the bottom floor, where I was told it was, and found myself surrounded, then I got shot with the F-12 and it strangled me still I blacked out. I woke up afterwards, saw you and fell into shock."

"Well. That's quite the story! Intergalactic hero… I wonder how I've never heard of you!"

"Yeah… I always wondered why I never met any other Lombaxes… Anyway, that my life story. So what's yours?"

* * *

So that the first chapter! What did you all think? Please leave a review!


	2. The Tail of his Life

Hello everyone! The second chapter is here! :3 I'll be posting every Wednesday so you can expect weekly chapters :D

Thanks so much to everyone who read the first chapter. You. Are. All. Amazing! And just a shout out to these people:

- Amberdiamondswords

- Foenix Nightshade

- .7

- evil Ratchet96

- LuigiWife1551

- NHGamer360

and a Guest

For reviewing much story :3 I'm glad you liked it :D

And I just want to apologise for any confusion about the first chapter. I put three little stars/asterisks in between the character changes, and they didn't show up and I only found out the next day, I fi9xed it with a line thing though :)

If anyone is wanting a description on Amel, my OC Just check out my profile page and there's a fairly detailed one :)

Now without further rambling. Here's the second chapter! :D

* * *

"My earliest memories are of an orphanage. I lived there for most of my life with my only two friends; Kaile (Kay_ill), and Keise (Kay_See) who were twins. The lady who ran the orphanage, Harrussa, told us about the day my friends and I arrived there...

'Three baby lombaxes all squished together in a escape pod that was of the finest quality i've ever seen. You three were crying when I found you, but I knew something unpleasant must've happened… I pulled you all into my orphanage and had a special room done up, and kept you all there, to protect you.'

Thats what she told us, just before my friends and I announced that we were leaving. I was 10 at the time, and I didn't know what I had there. I wanted to explore a bit, not to be concealed, free to roam the galaxy. My friends and I… 'commandeered' a ship, and just went from spaceport to spaceport, getting necessities with the thousand bolts be found in the back. But whenever we landed somewhere, we'd get looks from everyone who passed us. Whispers of 'A Lombax?' 'I thought they were extinct' 'What are they doing here' and the other half of the sentences involved the name Tachyon, who we knew nothing about. We tried to ask about people about him, but no one would talk to us, even the store clerks.

After about a week, we arrived at the Jacindu Spaceport. A blue skinned man walked up to us, claiming he could give us the information we need, but before he talked, he said he had a gift for me. I found in my hands a double ended wrench. It was massive on me, but he said I'd grow into it. He said 'Only the leaders of the Lombax Praetorian Guard use this, and you look like the leader' I threw it on the ground, and told him I didn't want the stupid tool, I wanted answers. He reacted calmly to my outburst at first, kneeling down to pick it up again, but then he became serious and told me something I'll never forget...

'You three are Lombaxes aren't you? Well, this is a Lombax Praetorian Guard double ended wrench. I thought you might want something from home. Especially since you'll need it when Tachyon comes after you. Oh, whose Tachyon? The ruler. The bane of your existence. The murderer or the Lombaxes. Keep away from him, and you'll live. Show up too much around anywhere? Hahaha, good luck.' and with that he walked off.

That scared the three of us a bit, so we quickly got back into our ship and left the spaceport. On that day I remembered seeing something in the newspaper about a planet called Tlekelimn, which was nominated for being the least cultivated planet in the system. We decided to go there, hide, but not like when we we're hiding in the orphanage, hiding with freedom around the planet. We got there within 3 days, and landed in the main city that morning only to find that it was a massive, thriving Metropolis. But upon seeing the looks on our faces, a stranger came up to us and said,

'Yeah, it's a bit conceiving at first because everyone expects a small town. But this is the only spot on this planet with people, the rest is wild. You drive 3 hours in any direction, you'll feel like you're somewhere else…'

We took this as advice, even though it wasn't intended to be, and drove west from the city for 3 hours. We landed in a very small clearing, just big enough for our cargo ship to land. The tree's that surrounded us had large leaves that blocked all sight from the air, which was great for us since we just wanted to be safe at this point. But, we were living in the wild, without weapons and shelter, except for the double ended wrench. We wouldn't have lasted a week. So, I went to the main city daily. I covered my ears during my trips and everyone I met thought I was a Cazar. This made it easy to get food, fuel and other necessities. I found a man, Tim, who was giving away all his scrap metal because he needed some space for a new project of his. I looked at the garage full of scrap and decided I wanted it all. We could easily make shelter, and weapons with it all. The only problem was that'd it take ages to transport it all over, but I thought it would be worth it. The first trip I just brought back big pieces, so that could keep us dry incase it started to rain, but day and day after that, I just took whatever I could fit in my ship until I had it all. It took me a month to transport it all back to our campsite, and during that month Tim and I became good friends. I went back the next day to thank the man, and also to ask what this new project of his was going to be, since that was the only reason he let me take all the scrap and I was also curious about mechanics, so I thought that an old timer like him would be doing something interesting. When I asked him about the project, he lowered his voice and asked me if he could trust me. I said yes, because he could and I wasn't gonna do anything bad to him. I followed him into the now empty garage, and he told me to close the door. There was a desk at the back which he led me to, which had 8 folders on it. He then whispered to me;

'I'm researching and building Lombax Technology'

And I felt a pot of joy overflow inside of me and decided it was the right time to take of my cap, so I told him that I had a little secret of my own. He looked dumbfounded when he saw my ears, but recomposed himself quickly and said 'That explains the scrap hoarding' and we laughed for a bit. He then showed me what was in each folder. 8 Blueprints, one in each folder. There were 3 wrench designs, A weapon which the name was written in Lombax, a 30% damage reduction Armour Set and, a Lombax Ship design. There were 2 gadgetron weapon schematics too. He then asked me how I got there, so I told him my story, and he understood the circumstances even though I did not. He copied each of the files for me so I could build my own stuff with the scrap. I was delighted and got to work that night after asking Kaile and Keici to choose which wrenches they wanted. I had finished both of them by dawn, enthusiastically working all night on them. My friends were ecstatic with the finished products, and that gave me the motivation to make more. I tried a gadgetron weapon, the Walloper. It took me a month to get it all right. At one point when you activated it, it'd go backwards. But I got there in the end. After I made the second gadgetron weapon, I decided I wanted to give myself a challenge. Building the ship. I went to Tim, for some advice about building the ship and he said he had a surprise for me. Curious, I followed him out the back, into the jungle. It was a short walk to a hidden shed with the surprise in it, and I didn't know what to expect. Body parts? A whole engine? Step by Step instructions? He had something better. In the shed was a chassis for the ship, along with the core CPU. Tim told me that a pilot crash landed on the planet when he was in his early twenties, but died on impact. Since then, he had made a vow to reassemble the ship but never got round to it. He gave it to me because he knew that I would be working on it every minute I could, and he was grateful that I could finish his vow he made as a young man. We put some grav stabilizers below the chassis and hooked it up to the Cargo Ship. He gave me some tools he had no use for now, and wished me luck as I flew off with the chassis. I flew back to our campsite as fast as I could. When I first got back to the campsite, the twins were excited for the project, and we began to talk it out. I explained that I would need probably need a lot of money for trading, so we may not have much meat while I'm doing the interior, and finding the paint. I told them not to fret as I would be doing those two things last although I ended up doing all the panels first. I Looked around for the cheapest, space-worthy paint deals but I couldn't find anything within my price limit, so I stole some top of the range blues, and oranges. Eight massive buckets full of paint on a trolley, I was surprised nobody caught me in the act. I wanted to surprise the twins, so I never told them that I did the body panels. As far as they knew, I was building an engine. After 5 months of remodeling pieces of metal into panels that fit perfectly, I looked at a silver/grey ship that looked great if you ignored the fact that the interior was missing. That night, I started painting. I had drawn up my own design in my free time, so I knew what i was doing, but it would take a while. Nine hours later, it was three in the morning, and I was finished. It would've taken a lot longer if I hadn't got quick dry paint. I woke up the twins to show them what I had done. They were completely pissed off since it was early morning, but I managed to get them to my workplace somehow. Smiles were plastered across their faces when they saw the ship. It looked real if you looked past the missing interior and kept the bonnet closed. They then ordered me to finish it at first sight, and from then, over the next two years they would always check in with my progress. The leather was the hardest part to get since I was looking for some top stuff, but Tim said he could get me some if I did some heavy work for him. After a month of working for him, the leather finally arrived. I gave Tim a ride to our campsite, so he could see the project so far. Everything was done, except for the leather parts that fitted into the interior. Tim gave me a massive hug for all my effort. It took me about a month to finish all the leather parts, but when I was finally done, I ushered my friends into the garage. When we first turned it on, the ship started talking to us, bickering about some Drophyd using seeker ammo causing a chase scene that went from fastoon to this 'Mudball'. When she realised that there were 3 Lombaxes looking at her, she thanked us for repairing her, and introduced herself. Her signature 3370-Alpha, and she said her name was Perihelion. We asked if we could have a test ride, and she was joyed by the fact that she could fly again. She asked about how I had found her, and fixed her so I told her what had happened. Everyone was happy, and from the on, the four of us just chilled for another five years, and by the time I turned 20, our house was well established. One story, 5 rooms, Beds, functioning kitchen, the works. It was great… until one day it turned to shit.

I got the message from the Tims wife. She was in tears. When I asked her what happened she calmed herself down enough to tell the twins and I about the new situation. Tachyon had found out about Tims Lombax hobby, and killed him off, but in the process found out about our location. She told us he just left in your direction but was cut off by the sound of a gunshot. We heard her voice no longer. The three of us together had two weapons each, and a Wrench. We set up multiple traps and hid Perihelion 100 meters away as an escape route, then waited nervously.

We heard him long before he showed up, his voice screeching over a tinny speaker. He arrived alone, on a walking throne and started chatting to us like we were having some casual conversation, taunting us about how we were going to die, and how our efforts had gone to waste. I finally had enough of it and changed his throne, smashing a knee joint, sending him tumbling down, then we ran for the ship. He was immobile, but his army was not. He had a team of 6 elite Drophyd soldiers with him and they closed in on us quickly, flying over the bushy terrain. Kaile tripped, and Keise went to help him, I stopped to turn back and to protect, but they told me to run and that they'd be fine. So I trusted their judgement, and ran… I got to the ship, and after a close call with two of the elites flew off and... never saw them again…

I became reckless, getting into trouble with pirates, vandalising public spaceports, stealing food from any place I could, until I got shot down by an unknown ship and crash landed here, on jacindu. I landed close enough to a gangs remote hideout, that they thought I was a spy for an opposing gang and imprisoned me here. Ive been here for 17 days, being tortured, and having new 'experiments' tried out on me, then you got here."

I finished my story and looked at my new friend, Ratchet. He hadn't said anything throughout the whole speech and I wondered what he thought of me.

"Well, you've had an interesting life" He said casually, face full of thought about what I had just said.

"Yeah, I guess, not as interesting as yours though" I joked, ginning at the idea of being an intergalactic hero...

"Are you kidding? You had two Lombaxes by your side pretty much your whole life! I've never known anyone of my kind…"

"What about that Lombax woman you met?" I asked. I knew what it felt like to be without others of your race, but not for as long as him.

"She got really busy with work after the whole protopet thing, and I never saw her much…"

"Well…" I drifted off, trying to think of something to comfort him. My brain clicked onto someone who should cheer him up. "At least you've had Clank from when you were fifteen, he sounds like an awesome friend"

"Yeah, thats right" He said, smiling now. I thought I had done well, making him happier under the circumstances, then his expression changed and he started shouting.

"Clank! Clank! Are you there buddy!? Clank!?"

His voice reminded me of myself when I lost by two best friends, heartbroken. Until we heard the sounds of metal falling down ontop of eachother, and out of the little office came a small, metallic Robot.

"Clank!" He shouted, emotion completely different. Elated, and happy.

"Ratchet?" the voice came out, sounding disorientated, and confused. He looked up and saw us, and a smile came over the Robots face.

"What happened?" He asked "Is that a Lombax?"

"We got surrounded, and captured on our mission from the Smuggler. And this here is Amel Mecktose. He's... been here for a while…"

"Hey Clank" I said. He looked a bit surprised that I knew his name before Ratchet spoke again.

"Don't worry, Pal. We exchanged life stories" The golden Lombax explained, smiling. The robot nodded before speaking again.

"Would you like me to get you out of there?" He asked, his bright green optical receivers shining up at us.

"Yes please!" Ratchet and I replied in unison.

"You'll have to go over into that office again, and find the keys." I continued, explaining what I knew to help Clank get us out. "Then, just by the stairs theres a switch to lower us down. Please hurry, they choose to come round at the weirdest times."

"I will" The Robot replied, with what I thought was a smirk.

A minute had passed before Clank came back with the key and headed off to the switch so Ratchet and I could get down. I fell flat on my face after being free of the chains, I couldn't stand up properly. Ratchet held out his hand to stabilize to pull me up, but I still wobbled around like I was walking on jelly.

"You okay there?" he asked, a slight grin on his face as he made sure I didn't topple over again.

"I haven't been on my feet in over two weeks, ground is foreign to me" I said, smiling at the fact that I was free, however wobbly this freedom was.

"I bet. Lets get you away from the edge before you fall into that toxic sludge we were hanging over before" He laughed before slowly pulling me towards the small office where Clank was waiting for us.

As we walked into the office, we found that the exterior was very deceiving as the interior was massive, filled with desks and filing cabinets. The walls were a dark chocolate colour that swept around the room, much like the colour of my stripes, but didn't give it much justice considering the state it was in. There were weapons hanging over the far end of the wall, and a metal bookcase stood out of place at the back of the room. All in all, I would be surprised if anyone would want to work here.

"Lets have a look around, see if we can find our weapons and that weapon the smuggler wants. Will you be alright to walk?"

"Yeah, I'll just stick to the walls" I announced before losing my balance and clinging to one of the desks. I propped myself back up, leaning heavily on the desk. "See, just fine"

"Haha, okay" he laughed "You look around here, and get used to walking. Clank and I will scout ahead, and search the other side"

"Cool, just shout out if you find anything"

"Will do" He said, walking off to the back of the office.

Balancing against the desk, I stretched my legs to warm them up a bit so that I could walk. I counted to twenty for each stretch and let go of the desk. This time there was no tumbling as I took the first step, then the second and by the third I knew I was going to be fine. After my little escapade to the wall opposite the desk, I decided to look through the drawers for weapons, or anything usefull. After looking through every draw on 3 desks, I heard a shout from the other end of the room.

"Clank, Amel. I found something!"

I decided to jog to the other side a bit, because I knew at one point we were going to have to run. It felt rewarding as I made it to Ratchet without tripping, or wobbling in any way.

"Looks like you've befriended gravity again" the sandy lombax smirked. "So, you'll be ready for the sprint away from here?

"Yeah, I guess… So, what did you find?"

He gestured down to a dark green plastic box on the floor. 'Confiscated Weapons' was marked on the side of the box, so it must be a good find. Ratchet delved into the box, looking at the goods inside. He handed me a yellow/orange weapons with a red node sticking upwards from the back of it.

"Combustor." Ratchet explained "Classic aim and shoot blaster"

"Cool, Grummelnet?"

"Yup, I saw an ad for a package deal, the combustor and this" He slipped a glove onto his right hand, and held it up. "I had it shipped to Solana on a 'within the hour' setting which I paid extra for, only to find out that I was coming to this galaxy anyway"

"Haha, ahh well. What else is in the box?" I asked him. He stuck his left hand in the box and pulled out a small, one handed wrench. He gripped it in his hand before attaching it to his belt.

"It's my Omniwrench. I'm glad they didn't put it with scrap metal. I feel lost without it"

"I have that same feeling right now…" I put my hand on my hip where I usually keep it, only to feel the unique holder I made that attached to my belt. "Is mine in there?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. Ratchet rummaged around the bottom of the green crate before a smile crept up his face. He put both hands in, one picking up my homemade, modified Tesla Claw. The other, a Lombax Praetorian Guard double ended wrench. I held down a joyful shriek as the sandy Lombax passed my wrench to me. I stood up, and flicked the wrench up, the down pointing it to the ground, to activate it to its full, staff like length. Ratchet gave me a smile as I flicked it down again, attaching it to my belt. I knelt down next to him again as he started examining the Tesla Coil.

"I haven't used one of the in ages!" he exclaimed, a nostalgic look etched across his face like he was itching to test it out.

"Careful" I said, as a slight warning. "it's heavily modded, and it may not be like the one you used to know."

"And you'd know this, how...?" He retorted, almost sarcastically.

"I made it, with those blueprints I got from Tim." A look of surprise flowed across his face before he clicked, putting all the bits and pieces together.

"Great then" He said, once again looking down into the forest green box, rummaging through it once the Claw was on the ground beside him. He looked for a little while more before shoving it back under the desk, and standing up holding the weapon in his hand. I found myself looking at his wrench again. It was a nice and simple design, blocky on one side, curved on the other. The silver design had no designs on it, but even so it still looked a masterpiece.

"So what made you get a wrench" I asked him, trying to remember what he said during our massive 'life story' conversation.

"I was found with one in my hands, remember? I never let it go, until I went to bogon and found another stronger one. I almost threw the original one away… Well actually, I did. But I went back almost instantly, because it was still special to me. I've always been getting up grades, or variants, but after dreadzone I had to get a new one since the Vox industries wrench wasn't full out legal. The new one is this, by the way. So what about you? did that guy just give you one so you kept it?" He smirked a bit, and started walking down to the end of the office, gesturing at me to follow.

"At first I didn't like it at all. It was too big, and it seemed unpractical. But one day, I was playing around with it, out of boredom I think, and it folded up. That was when I learnt how to adjust it. Now that it was my size, I started using it more and more, using it to bash the occasional Tleilksnopper until it was always at my belt. Like you, I now would feel lost without it"

"Well, maybe its a Lombax thing?" He smiled, the grin on his face like he got a bucket of sweets for his birthday.

"Well, if it's not. It is now!" I concluded, smiling like he was now, but wondering what our ancestors would be thinking about us too. Before I had the chance to spill my thoughts, Clanks voice jumped around the room, and we both turned around to look.

"My scanners indicate a secret passage-way of sorts behind this wall" The he informed us, pointing over to a little cove at the far end of the office.

"Any way through Pal?" Ratchet asked as we both made our way to the small Robot, stopping just as we reached the cove.

"There seems to be a wire leading from it too…" He drifted off slightly, eyes moving slowly across the wall before he came across a bookshelf. He then looked down, almost at the ground before finishing his sentence "There." he said, beginning to walk to the bookcase. Clank put his hand on a small book that was closest to the left on the bottom shelf titled '100 Drophyd Stews for Housewives' and pushed it forward into the wall. A hiss of compressed air let loose sounded the opening of the hidden passageway and we turned around to see what we had just done. There was a square hole in the wall, that led to a 3 metre passageway and at the end of it we found a lift. Before anyway else said something, I decided to play the joker.

"Shall we?" I said, mock gesturing towards the lift with my right arm, and holding my left hand out toward him.

"We shall" Ratchet said, returning the act and walking through the elevator door with me holding my hand till we stepped into the small metal capsule that was the lift. Clank shook his head at us and followed through.

The lift itself looked relatively new, that or it's just not used often. Ratchet pressed the top button as Clank stepped in, and we felt ourselves been pushed to the ground. 'This lift is fast' I thought, as we sped upward. Before I had time to think how high up we were, the 3 of us caught some air time as the elevator came to a sudden stop and reached the top floor. We stepped into the initial passageway and immediately noticed the low ceiling, which was probably there to hide the fact that his floor existed. We walked around the passageway and were surprised at what we found. It was a testing facility. in one corner there were dead animals everywhere, each with marks around their necks which I assumed were from the live ice tests. In another there were tonnes of vials, all empty at this time, but looking like they were relatively new. There was a small room to our right with a kitchen and some chairs so I assumed that was a break room. and the rest of this floor was just offices. The three of us just looked around, dumbfounded. I wanted to say something, but I was at a loss for words and in the end Ratchet was the first to speak.

"This is… Horrible" He exclaimed, stumbling for words. "What the hell is this live ice thing?" he shouted, not even expecting an answer. But sadly, I knew.

"It's been used on the both of us. It's what's in that gun right now" I said, pointing to the black weapon on his belt. The look on Ratchets face told me he wanted to shake it off like it was a deadly bug. I continued with a small explanation, because he needed to know what it did, I couldn't keep it from him.

"It wraps itself around the… Opponent's neck, and strangles them, until you flick the switch…"

"Thats insane!" The golden Lombax shouted again, and I was afraid that someone was going to hear us, but that didn't matter right now… hopefully. "Why the hell would the Smuggler want this!?"

"The Smuggler is a businessman" Clank interveined, stopping Ratchet before he got worse. "And however wrong the intentions of the weapon is, I think he is only in it for the money. Now that its more perfected, he wants it back…"

"Well, I'm only in it for the ship." Ratchet said, frustration getting the better of him. "All this testing is horrible... Something tells me the Smuggler is done with this gang anyway, or at least not working with them for a while, so… I have an idea"

"What is it?" I asked, curious. He put a edge to his voice like he was planning a prank of sorts.

"Just find the hatch to the roof, I'll tell you once we're all there. C'mon Clank" Ratchet said, waving at clank to follow him. Instead Clank jumped up, and locked onto his back.

"Thats what the locks for!" I said before I could stop myself.

"Oh, yeah. He's my backpack, as well as my friend" Ratchet smirked, and Clank waved his feet around a bit whilst giggling quietly. Ratchet walked off, Clank right behind him - literally - and was looking down at his glove, fiddling with a switch. I pushed my curiosity outwards and began my journey for the hatch.

It turned out to be a short journey as the hatch was pretty much right behind me. I shouted out to the other two that it was at the back right corner and heard a 'Yup' before I climbed up to the top of the roof. I looked over at the night sky and almost forgot that I hadn't seen it for more than two weeks. Emotions flooded me when I looked up to the stars and remembered those peaceful night that I had with Kaile and Keici. We always slept outside during summer, looking up at the stars, talking sometimes till dawn, other times sleeping through dawn... I missed them both so much.

"Hey, you alright Amel?" A calm voice asked from behind me. I turned around quickly to find Ratchet and Clank both standing behind me, a couple of steps away from the hatch. I must've been here for longer than I thought...

"I know what droopy ears mean. Whats up?"

"The sky" I answered. I saw the look of irritation on his face and quickly started to explain. "No, not like that, the night sky. My friends and I used to sleep under the stars every summer night… It just brings back memories, you know?"

"Yeah, I know… But hey, we're getting out of here now. And our next job is to take Tachyon down a peg. You in for that?" I smiled and nodded, thankful that Ratchet was caring, instead of him just laughing at my face. I may have only known him for an hour, but he already seemed as good a friend as Kaile and Keici.

"So what's the plan for now?" I asked the sandy Lombax in front of me, curious as to what this plan of his was. How were we gonna escape? He answered my question with an unexpected twist.

"Well, we're going to jump off the building!"

"What!?" I shouted, but it was too late. He had tackled me, causing both of us to fall off the side but he never let go of me. I screamed until I realised we were gliding down. Clank had some sort of helicopter blades coming from his head and hands which were spinning round as a blur. It was a rough landing, but nothing leg braking like it would've been if Clank wasn't a mini helicopter.

"Sorry about the landing" Clank said "The heli-pack is not used to dealing with more than one person."

"No worries, that was amazing! I need something like you!" I exclaimed. A robotic backpack that can let you glide to safety? amazing.

"Sorry, but he's a one of a kind, literally. He was meant to be a massive killer bot, but popped out like this, and man am I grateful for that error." He smiled, as well as Clank and I only just started to understand how close they were.

"Now come on!" Ratchet said turning around. "I planted bombs up there that will detonate as soon as this glove is out of range." I started to panic. We just escaped and now we were going to get captured again!

"Really? They'll kill us!"

"They'll be distracted" he dismissed me with a wave of his hand. "Plus. I'm trading this for a ship" He concluded, holding up the F-12.

"Great, okay" I said, just getting the idea around my head, and it was actually a pretty good one. "So where's this Smuggler?"

"Approximately 3.6 kilometers away" Clank pointed out.

"A short run for you to get used to the ground again" Ratchet added. I looked down, and realized I was standing on soft green grass, something that I hadn't done for more than 3 weeks. I was elated to get out of there, and even more so to see their base get blown up. So I started jogging, following Ratchet into the wild.

It was only a few seconds before we heards 8 beeps in quick succession from Ratchets glove. A massive explosion rang out at the top floor of the hideout. Alarms blasted from the building, waking up all the 'employees'. Noise of all kinds filled the air; shouts, squawks. roars from some animal I didn't want to cross paths with. I only barely heard Ratchets voice over all the ruckus

"Time to sprint" was all he said before he took off. And I followed.

* * *

So what did you think of that? Leave a review please!

Reviews = Motivation :3


	3. So, What now?

Hey All! Chapter 3 here! :D

Again, thanks to these awesome peeps who did a review for the last chapter you guise are awesome! :3

Amberdiamondswords, Foenix Nightshade, evil Ratchet96, NHGamer360, LuigiWife1551

And to everone who even reads this you guys are awesome as too :3

(And because I'm mean I'm gonna tell you I've got a cool as mind boggling ending planned - which wont be happening for a while though, this isn't gonna be a short story…)

Also, the chapters will be swapping from Amel, to Ratchet each chapter. Chapter 2 was Amel, so this one is Ratchet :)

Now, here's the chapter!

* * *

After a quick 15 minute sprint, we saw a blue skinned man in the distance. He had a cowboy hat, wheat sticking out of his mouth, and a small sword in a sheath hanging of his belt. As we neared him, he got up out of his flax-woven chair, and slowly walked towards us. Clapping once as he stopped a meter away from us.

"Hello, Friend! I see you found the Captive." The blue skinned man greeted us and held out his hand, which I cautiously shook

"Wait, you knew about him?" I asked, a bit of anger building up inside me, but I pushed it back down once he stated his intentions.

"Oh yeah, 'course I did. I thought I could hit two birds with one stone, ya know? So we _both _get want we want" he said the last sentence in a sly voice, dragging out certain words like he does whenever he talks about a 'business' preposition.

"Right" I replied unconvinced, just wanting to get this ship and go. After a short moment of silence, the Smuggler spoke again, bringing up the real topic of our conversation.

"Did you get the experiment for me?" The Smuggler finally asked. I unhooked the obsidian gun from my belt, and held it out for him to see, but only so he could see it, not take it.

"Lets see that ship first." I stated my intentions clearly. He just nodded, like he was expecting it.

"Sure, Hos. Right over here, follow me." He turned around and waved at us to follow him which we did. We were led behind his ship to another small clearing with something that had been described to me before. A blue Lombax ship, split nose and orange stripes going down the body and a new looking glass hatch, stained orange to match the paint job.

"That's my ship!" Amel shouted from behind me. I almost expected a mystical voice to reply with 'Possession is an illusion. Do not all thangs belong to the cosmos?' but this was the smuggler, not the Mystic. He replied with the same voice as always, assertive, and passive at once.

"Well yes it _was _your ship. But after you crashed I bought it off some stupid Kerchu for a hundred bolts. So now, it's _mine_, unless you give me that gun."

"Here" I said, throwing the black gun to him. He caught it with ease and went over to the ship, hooking the weapon to his belt as he walked. He proceeded to open up the bonnet and re-connect some wires for us, which he probably disconnected earlier so we wouldn't scam him.

"You had a very lucky landing" The Smuggler spoke to Amel out of the blue, whilst connecting up the wires. "You landed on some featherlight trees, and a couple of bushes that were well placed. The only damage the ship took was in underbelly, which is heavily scratched. And the windshield which was completely broken. But, I took the liberty of replacing it. The plan was to sell this here space fighter for some big bolts, make a hefty profit out of the hundred I got if for. I knew a guy who could get me a matching glass hatch for it, but on our return flight we ran out of fuel, and found you on Cobalia" He gestured to me. "And that's where the idea came from. See, I'm a businessman, always looking where the big bolts are, and I reckon grummelnet will pay me a hefty buck for this here weapon." He tapped the gun on his belt before finishing up with the wiring. The bonnet closed with a small click, signalling it was locked again, and he opened the hatch for us.

"Oh, by the way. The Kerchu are probably looking for us, so it may be best if you leave now, like we are" I told the Smuggler, just as a fair warning since he kept his deal.

"Thanks friend. I was gonna leave this planet anyway, those Kerchu have dealt with me for the last time... Now take care Hos. Glad to do, business with ya. I guess I'll be seeing you sometime in the near future?"

"It's a possibility" I said, waving him off whilst Amel went over to the ship to activate the core CPU. The Smuggler had walked back to his ship before Perihelion had started up. The ship started hovering, just above my head level and I saw what the smuggle meant by 'scratched underbelly'.

"How long has it been this time?" she asked herself rhetorically before she saw us. "Oh, Amel. I thought you were dead like the last pilot I had..."

"No, I was captured for a couple of weeks, but I'm back now." Amel explained to his ship. "Any idea what hit us?"

"No, something electromagnetic. I'd guess pirates." The ship said, sounding sure of her estimate

"Okay, it doesn't matter much now anyway. But these two here are Ratchet, and Clank" He gestured over at us.

"Hey… Perihelion?" I waved at the ship. She responded in what could only be called shock.

"Another Lombax? I wasn't sure if there were any more… Are there others?"

"Sadly no." Amel said, in a defeated tone, ears drooping slightly at the thought.

"Oh, okay" reacting like Amel had, dipping down her nose a bit. After a small silence, I spoke again reminding everyone what had just happened.

"Well, I think we should go now since theres probably a whole Kerchu gang looking for us right now" I added to their conversation. Amels ears lifted back up as he readjusted his thoughts to the situation we were in.

"Oh yeah. Quick, get in."

As we hopped in the ship and the hatch closed, we saw the Smuggler just ahead of us, leaving. It took a minute to exit the planets atmosphere, but Perihelion did it with ease and left me thinking 'I want a ship like this'. As soon as we entered space, Amel flicked the switch for the warp drive and we sped away from Jasindu, and from danger.

"So, what now..?" Amel thought aloud, trying to ponder up a plan.

"Well, we don't have any leads... except for one..." I replied cautiously. I knew he wouldn't like what I was about to say.

"What?" He asked, C'mon, spill the beans!" I braced myself for his reaction at was he was going to say...

"I think we should go back to your old campsite, maybe get some things you left there, and ask around the community where would be a good spot to learn about some history..." I was expecting a small outburst from the guy, but I got quite the opposite.

"Peri, could you go on autopilot to home please?" He asked the ship as an answer to my question.

"Inputting Coordinates now" Peri responded "You are free to let go of the wheel. It is a 54 minute drive at an average flight speed, or would you like to warp there.

"Nah, it's fine. Gives us some time for a chat" Amel responded. He turned his chair around to face Clank and I in the back seat. He spoke first, voice hardened, in a 'down to business' type way.

"We'll need supplies," He began, "I can get those pretty easily. We hid all of our bolts near our campsite so moneys no problem"  
"Great. Do you have anyone that you trust?" Amel formed a pained expression and he rubbed his face as he spoke in a strained voice.

"Yes, but it's been three weeks, who knows what Tachyons done?" I nodded at this, thinking the same thing as he was. But we couldn't just do nothing.

"Great. Well, before we go to land, we'll scan the area for imperial troops, as well as the city"

"Then it's a deal. What next though? We've got absolutely no leads" His question rung in the air for a while before I thought up a response, and my answer came out slowly

"Umm... We'll see after we leave Tlekelimn. Right now, I think its just important that we get out alive, if Tachyon is there."

"It'll be fine" He waved my comment off "Now you're worrying"

* * *

We landed on Tlekelimn within the hour, going top speed for the last 10 minutes to halve the time to get there. Perihelion landed in the clearing, and moved slightly underneath the trees automatically, like she had since she had been rebuilt. There we're no Imperial Patrols surrounding the area at all, but since they had been scouting the city ever since the last time Amel was here, we decided to be quick. As soon as the glass hatch opened, Amel sprung out of the ship and ran over to his old campsite. The place was still intact, as well as everything in it. Tachyon must've left the area after Amel took off, trying to get into pursuit with him before he warped off, but to no avail as Amel escaped him. He took out a spade from the small handmade house ahead of us and walked straight towards an old tree that resembled an oak. He proceeded to take 10 steps to the left of the tree before sticking his spade into the ground, taking out piles of dirt with each movement. Within a couple of minutes, he uncovered the hidden booty of bolts. We put 300 into a safe at the back of the ship, and the rest got teleported into my bank account via my wrench. Amel told us to stay outside for a second as he went through the front door. My suspicion aroused for the minute and a half that he was gone for, but when he stepped out of the front door, I understood why he didn't want us to follow him. He had replaced the white rags he had been wearing earlier with a dark green shit, black down the sides to match his black pants. He wore some leather gloves that showed his fingers and unlike mine, only went up to his wrists. Overall he looked taller, and much more humane which gave me a slightly different perspective on him, rather than what the white rags did for him, though the shirt hung loose a bit since Amel himself was now a stick. We needed to just sit down, and have a feast for dinner since we were both hungry. Before i could say anything, Amel told me to search the house for anything I thought was useful and he walked off to the jungle.

"Where do you think he's going?" I asked Clank, whilst walking into the house.

"I am unsure, but it may have something to do with the day Tachyon came. Looking for clues to his friends whereabouts, possibly" Clank answered my question, a hopeful expression on his face.

"Well, I think I better go after him, ya know? Just incase." I stopped in my tracks, as did Clank.

"I will perform a scan of the house, to reveal any hidden items" The small robot said, extending his antenna as he prepared for the scan.

"Thanks Pal." I said just before running out of the house. When I caught up to Amel, I found him on the ground, sobbing. His feelings had exploded out of him all at once, leaving him on the ground in a state of trauma. I walked up to him, sat beside the brown Lombax and gave him a couple of minutes to calm down before saying anything. I saw a piece of fabric in his hands, dried blood all around it and I knew that the chances of his friends survival were dim.

"This was where I last saw them" Amel spoke, tears still coming out slowly from his puffy eyes. "They were all I had… I should've stayed to protect them..." I was at a loss for words. I knew the severity of this situation for him, and I knew I had to say something to comfort him, but what? After thinking of what to say for what seemed like a minute, I took a different approach of conversation instead of trying to reword a sentence that would be of no help.

"What were they like?" I asked, still unsure of how he would react, but there was a purpose to my question.

"Kaile and Keise? They were brilliant…

They were twins, with red/orange fur, and crimson stripes. They looked almost exactly the same, except that Kaile had longer ears, a more masculine body, and he was slightly taller. He had brown eyes that were filled with knowledge and wisdom. He was into his books, but you could always count on him for a fight. Keise on the other hand was more into adventure, like me. She was shorter than her twin, just taller that you, and her eyes were a beautiful deep brown, that held another galaxy full of adventure…" He drifted off slightly, a pained look coming over his face but he soon composed himself just enough to continue talking.

"They were my best, and only friends. Like family. I could always count on them, and they could always count on me, but now… It feels like I'm living another life, just in the same place…" He drifted off, ending his small spiel with a sob.

"When i was about 12, my best friend died on Veldin, before Clank, I was told this by Jewel, my caregiver;

'Remember them as they were, not as they are now. Remember all the good times, and never the bad. Remember them heroes, of your life and others. Remember them for good, because friends never let you suffer'"

He looked up at he and smiled slightly at what I had said, and wiped the tears out of his eyes, and fur. We slowly got up and continued walking away from the campsite. He was looking for something. I wasn't sure what, and I decided not to ask, just out of politeness. He broke the silence after a minute with an unexpected comment.

"I loved her you know" He said, looking up to the sky. "I loved her since I made those wrenches and saw that smile on her face. It was a rarity back then since we werent living as well as the last few years, but It gave me hope. She was the only one who could make me do something, anything. When it came to that day, and Kaile told me to leave, I said no. I wouldn't have left unless she ordered it, and she did..." He drifted off again and his gaze turned back to the ground.

"So we're looking for the wrenches then?" I asked slowly, again unsure of how to respond

"Yeah" was all he said, moving his head up, scouring the jungle of any sign of anything really. We decided to split up momentarily on our quest for the wrenches, and it wasn't long before they were found.

"Amel!" I shouted through the jungle. "I found something!" there was a few quick footsteps before he was right by my side. I held my arm out towards the two wrenches, placed in a straight line. He knelt down and studied them for a second before picking one up.

"Why positioned like this?" He asked, more to himself than to me. I racked my brains to try and answer his, and found myself walking forward in the direction of the wrench. I guessed it could've been a clue, and the head of the wrenches were pointing to something. Amel picked up both the wrenches, and and followed me.

"Where are you going?" he asked, his tone curious towards what I was doing. I ignored him, and continued forth till I came across a tree. There was one word hastily scratched into the side.

'_Inside'_

"What does it mean?" I asked him, as he quickly walked up to the tree. It looked like he knew what he was doing because he started looked around the tree.

"These tree's are hollow" he said after a while, answering my question. I was about to respond before his hand went missing inside the entrance, and he pulled out an envelope. On it, there were two names written, but more precisely than the writing on the tree, which raised more questions. The two names that were on the envelope were none other than Kaile, and Keises'. Amel used all his effort not to break down again, I could see it in his face that he was holding some tears back as he read it out.

'_Dear Amel_

_We are writing this as you are hiding Peri, and hope you never find this, but if you have, it means that today didn't go like we wanted it to, but we want you to know anything we do in the next hour, we did for you._

_If Kaile and I are gone from your life, please don't break down. Stay strong, do what you have to do to live and don't do anything too outrageous. We all had a great life together, the 10 years in Tlekelimn are how I always wanted to spend my life. It was great to wake up without a problem, and to sleep under the stars together, but I fear it may end soon…_

_You're just about to get back now, so I need to stop writing. I love you Amel, stay strong for me._

_Keise'_

Amel looked at the letter for a long time before closed and pocketed it. I don't think he had any emotion left at this point. We started walking back to the house slowly but he was walking through a hurricane of emotion, and he was losing the battle. I needed to do something.

"Hey, Amel?" He looked up at me as I spoke and I saw his red, puffy eyes, and the tear matted hair underneath his eyes.

"Look, we're gonna stop Tachyon - Whatever it takes. You, Clank and I will stop him." He smiled a bit at the thought, but it didn't last long because we soon heard the sounds of jet fighters coming up from behind his.

"Shit" we both muttered under our breaths before looking at eachother, laughing for a second and dashing off into a sprint. Clank was already in Perihelion as we emerged into the small clearing that Amel used to call home. But it was almost too late, the Jet fighters had turned around and slowed down to land

"Peri! Start up the cloaking device!"

"I've already done that. Hop in" The ship said in the only way she could. Amel and I jumped into the ship and the hatch closed and Peri turned us invisible from the outside. He then reversed the Lombax ship back underneath some thicker trees so that we definitely wouldn't be squashed by the jet fighters. Then, we waited.

It was only a minute before the two Imperial aircraft landed down beside us, less than a meter away. We kept quiet as 6 Drophyd Soldiers hopped out, 3 from each jet, and started scouting the immediate area. They weren't Elite guards, they only had Class 1 suits and a plan hatched in my head. I looked over at Amel who was still rubbing his eyes. But he had a look of determination on his face. Determination for revenge.

"Lets get 'em" I whispered enthusiastically, breaking the silence. "Theres only six, and they are wearing low level suits - We could win the battle easily. We could then grab some info of their ships computers" I added, to try and convince the others. In reality, we did have enough weapons, as well as our own wrenches. Amel quickly agreed

"Is there a plan?" The chocolate Lombax asked "Or is it just-"

"Shoot, Kill, Hack, Leave." I cut him off, grinning a bit. He smiled at me and counted down before opening the glass hatch that was concealing us from our opposition.

"Three… Two… One… GO!" He shouted the last word as the hatch popped up. Jumping out of the ship, and with Clank on my back I got started. I took out the Heavy Lancer I found at the Kerchu Hideout and aimed for the first guards head pod. As soon as the bullets got through the glass, the suits shut down.

"Shoot the glass pods that the Drophyds are in!" I shouted the advice to my friend who was in heavy arm to arm combat, swinging his wrench at the metal suits. "As soon as they're out, the suits are off!" He nodded at my words and used a hyper strike on the guard he was battling to smash the glass pod concealing the Drophyd operating the small mech. As soon as we found out that technique, killing them was just walking up to them and throwing our wrenches. The last guard actually tried to run away from us, but sealed its fate but tripping over a tree root.

"Well that was simple" Amel told me, a smile on his face. The first small step to avenging his friends had been done, and he was happy about it.

"Yeah, but sooner or later Tachyon will want to send the elite troops after us, probably when he thinks we have a chance at getting through, and I doubt those suits will have glass as easily breakable as these guys" I noted, gesturing to the small mechs surrounding us.

"Yeah. So, now what?"

"Hack the ship. Shouldnt be too hard" I turned to face the nearest Imperial jet. As we neared the enemy ship, I turned around to let Clank jump in and take control of the system. It turns out that there was no security on the ship, everything was easily accessible. But we knew that time was limited, so we copied it all over to Perihelion and took off towards the city, still invisible as we didn't want to be spotted by backup.

"So that went well, do we still need to go to the city?" Amel asked, probably fearing the response of the public, people asking where he's been for that past 3 weeks since he just disappeared.

"I think I have a lead on here" Clank said, scrolling down a list on the ships touch screen monitor.

"Stratus City, on Planet Kortog has a building called the Hall of Knowledge" Clank continued. "It is not accessible to the public, but also not heavily guarded it seems" He pointed over to some schematics of the building. The guard stations were minimal, so we shouldn't have much problem getting into the Hall, and finding out what our next plan of action could be.

"Okay, thats settled then. Peri, set a course to the nearest spaceport. We need to fill you up before we leave for Kortog" The ship replied as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Done, we should be there in 12.6 minutes. Hold on while we exit the planet atmosphere"

We did as Peri said, and found ourselves in space seconds later. We were going at a low, but steady pace to conserve fuel, and it was still only a 10 minute ride from now on till we reach the spaceport.

We got strange looks from the public as we walked through the port. Peri was getting filled up on Gelatonium, and Clank was continuing to look through the copied files, so that left Amel and I to pay for the fuel.

"You're not from around here, aren't you?" a stranger called out to us. We turned to look at the man, and found a Blargian, staring right back at us. He looked about 45, light blue eyes without a pupil. He had yellow teeth, and we could smell him far before we were close to him. I decided he was homeless, but he still may have some information for us. I looked over at Amel, who in turn looked back at me and gave me a small nod. We walked towards the red skinned man, and I was the first to speak.

"What's it to ya?" I asked, keeping my ground, being aware of the man since I have had a bad run in this his species before.

"What brings you here, Lombax? I thought Tachyon killed you all…" The man drifted off, a smile played on his face, but it was Amel's turn to respond

"Well, we're looking to return the favour, have you got anything important for us, or shall we leave"

"Take him out. Not just for your own agenda, for the Galaxy. It's in ruins and its all that bloody Cragmites fault. The only thing I could tell you is that he's looking for your secret, so you better keep it hidden."

"Secret?" Amel and I asked at the same time, but the man had already walked off, and we decided to let it go, he was probably just some street crazy anyway.

We grabbed some tinned food for our journey, and went up to the counter to pay for it, as well as the fuel. After seeing our approach, the store clerk kept his head down, never making eye contact, much less any proper conversation. We left the store with a small thanks, and a decent sized sack of canned food for our upcoming adventure.

"So what's that all about?" I asked Amel, since he obviously knew more about this galaxy.  
"My guess throughout the years is that they're scared of us, but more scared of Tachyon, so they just try to avoid any sort of communication, unless its their job to" he explained, the best he could.

"Well, that does makes sense, but we're still as-"

'Congratulations! You have received an Interstellar Holo-vite from…

Walter Qwarkowski' My nav unit interrupted me. Amel was the first to react.

"Who the hell is Walter Qwarkowski?" He asked, stifling a laugh at the idiotic name.

"Sounds like Qwark who's a… 'friend' of mine."

"The guy who tried to kill you twice, then take all your glory?" He asked grinning from ear to ear at my past.

"Yep. Thats him." I said, with a hint of irritation as we walked back to our ship. The hatch opened as we neared it and we sat down on the two front seats.

"Peri, could you play this holo-vite for us please?" Amel asked, but the screen was already flickering, and before we knew it the imperial logo popped up on the screen...

_"Mad for mayhem? Crave carnage? Adore destruction? Well today is your lucky day! You have been invited to participate-...oops. I mean witness- the greatest, bloodiest, goriest battle in the universe! __**The Imperial Fight Festival!**_ _(rated "M" for mature) Come on down to planet Mukow and enjoy a night of entertainment without any ulterior motives or deception. (Offer only valid for fuzzy, long-eared orphans and their tiny robotic companions.)"_

There was an ounce of silence after the holo-vite played. We were probably all thinking the same thing 'It's a trap' but we knew we couldn't just leave it.

"That sounds like Qwark" Clank commented on hearing the Holo-vite.

"Which means its a trap" I finished for him, saying our thoughts out loud. "But its our only other lead. Plus, I guess we should just make sure he's ok…I mean, we can't just leave him"

"So does that mean we're going there first?" Amel asked, scratching his left ear lightly.

"Well, he's probably got something for us, that or he's begging for his life" I answered his question, not sure what to do myself. Qwark could be really annoying at the worst of times, better to get it over and done with now rather than him stuffing up something important in the future, although if I think about it, thats bound to happen anyway.

"Well, we need to know a bit more about what we're facing if we're going straight into the Emperor's clutches. I reckon we should go to the Hall of knowledge first, Qwark can survive another hour or two, right?" I thought about it for a short while before answering him. But I knew he was right, we can't just go in blindly to Qwarks trap.

"Yeah. We'll go to Kortog first. Information first, destruction later. Plus, there may be a couple more weapons for sale, and we'll need ammo before we go to an arena"

"True that. Peri, enter the coordinates for Stratus City, Planet Kortog please, and we'll be warping there this time." He ordered the ship. But Peri had already done it.

"Coordinates inputed. Take off now?" she asked. Amel put his hand to his chin, thinking about it before just going straight ahead into it.

"Yes, uhh… Yeah, we will. How long do you estimate the journey will take?"

"Approximately 15.7 minutes at warp speed, including time for entering the atmosphere and landing"

"Great, Thanks Peri"

"You're welcome" I looked back over the seats to Clank, who was still looking through the files on a small touch screen monitor.

"So, Clank, did you find anything else worth taking a look at?"

"Not really, just some... personnel... files of those Drophyds, which I happily deleted." We all laughed at that as we took off, heading for Kortog to hopefully learn something about our ancestors. I was sure that the same question was ringing through our heads. 'What happened to them?'

* * *

So what did you think of that? Leave your thoughts in a review! :3


	4. Red Planet

And here is another chapter! sorry I didn't post one last week… A bit of procrastination here and there for all this stuff I had to do meant I got nothing done at all… But don't worry! Chapter should (**should**) continue to come out weekly :)

Now enjoy the story!

* * *

It was a lengthy ride to Kortog. We had to take a massive detour around a Imperial Fleet that seemed to be heading towards the Fight Festival Qwark had set up for us. All it did really, was give me some more time to mourn. I couldn't stop thinking about my two friends; Their note for me. Their love for me. And how they were gone from my life. I wish I could've done something on the day to keep them. I'd do anything right now to have them back. If I hadn't got that note, I probably would've been dead by now, either that or I would've been over 100 feet below ground level on Jasindu… My mind returned to the note.

_...Anything we do in the next hour, we did for you…_

_...Don't break down. Stay strong…_

_...I love you Amel, stay strong for me._

I kept going over that last line, wishing that the last 3 weeks were just one big nightmare. But I knew it wasn't.

I began to remember the aftermath of it all. Getting into pursuits with the cops, always escaping. Stealing a whole tank full of gelatonium from the gel station, which caused the pursuits. The brushes with death as I went up against some lousy space pirates. The crash on Jasindu. Being held captive for 17 days by the Kerchu, then… Ratchet. The guy who got me out of my prison. The man whose life had been full of heroics. The only other Lombax in the universe that I knew of now, who was alive and very much with me. Without him, I'd probably be dead. Yet I only met him less than a day ago… less than five hours ago, yet I feel like I've known him forever… I guess thats what happens when you put the last two Lombaxes together.

All that got pushed out my mind when the red planet came into our sights. Finally, after the 50 minute roundabout, I could think about the current events, and I was getting twitchy in my seat at the sight of our destination.

_I'd finally be rebelling against Tachyon._

_We might actually be successful, Ratchet, Clank and I._

_I'm half an hour away from finding out what happened to the Lombaxes._

I looked behind me at the back seat where Ratchet was trying to sleep. I almost thought he was, but he was twitching around, eyes opening every once in a while.

"Hey, you can get up now" I swayed my hand up, gesturing to the sandy Lombax behind me. He slowly got up, like someone who had just got out of bed, but he had the same look in his eye as I did; A thirst for adventure, and answers.

"Man that was a _great _sleep" He lied, sarcasm flowing through his voice halfway through the sentence. He stretched his arms, mocking a yawn before turning around to face me properly.

"So, Sleeping Beauty. You ready?" I asked hoping to hear that he was as eager as I was.

"Eyes on the road, Tiger. We still need to get there in one piece" He got up, and pushed my face forward till I saw the asteroid.

"Shit" I muttered under my breath as I swerved out of the way. I heard laughter from the man beside me as I rebalanced the ship. I glared at him, before breaking into a grin and we both continued to laugh. With all the commotion, we didn't notice Clank, booting up on the floor of the back seat, probably there because of the asteroid I had to turn away from. The metal robot proceeded to stand up, and hop over the two front seats.

"Hey Clank" We greeted the Robot in unison, just before laughing at how uncanny the past couple of minutes were.

"Uhhh, what did I miss?" Clank asked, confusion flooding his voice as he looked up at the both of us with curiosity in his eyes. I turned around to focus my attention back to flying the ship as Ratchet explained what had just happened, as well as where we were. I then added the bit about the detour around and Imperial Fleet as Ratchet was 'sleeping' at that point of time.

"And we're here" I gestured at the giant mass ahead and we all looked up at the planet that filled our sights. It was a murky crimson colour, beautiful in its own way with patches of green dotted over the place which I guessed were either forests, or Gelatonium foundries. There were clouds swirling around the planet, covering only as much of a sixteenth of the planet, unlike others I've seen which were all clouds.

"Prepare to enter the Atmosphere" I informed the other two, which quickly moved into the correct positions on their seats, and putting their seatbelts on. The ship then speed up as now we had gravity on our side, pulling us down faster. I refused to pull up though, I wanted to give the duo a little scare like they did to me with the heli pack. Unbeknownst to them, Peri would pull up as soon as I pulled the steering wheel towards me. She was the most responsive ship I had ever flown, not that I had flown many ships. I decided to ramp up the joke a bit and flick on the thrusters. We were now shooting down this planet faster than a meteorite.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Ratchet screamed at me, pushing again the seatbelt which had kicked in for safety measures, strapping him to the seat completely. I didn't reply to him, I was focusing on when to pull up. I could barely see the top of the towers before a security message made me jump out of my seat, which is saying something since I was plastered against it as the others were.

'Attention transport vessel!' The speaker blasted its message, distorting. 'A bioscan reveals two Lombax lifeforms aboard your ship! Stand by for immediate disintegration!'

"Amel what the hell?" Ratchet shouted at me, I could tell he was angry, the joke was long over now. I had taken it just a bit too far, especially with all the missiles now shooting up towards us.

"Just. Hold on!" I shouted back, only to get over the commotion though. I pulled back on the steering wheel and Perihelion straightened out, keeping all the speed we mustered up. The missiles were trailing far behind us, but they would catch up eventually when we tried to land.

"I have got to get myself one of these!" Ratchet exclaimed, suddenly seeing my plan. He punched me on the shoulder lightly but hard enough for me to feel it.

"We're even now" I said, grinning at him. The cogs started moving around in his brain, trying to think what my statement meant, until…

"That time where we jumped off the building? You're getting me back for that?" I smiled at him, and he pushed me over a bit in my seat as I laughed at his expression.

"Sorry to interrupt" Clank butted in "But we still have missiles tracking us, and probably more on the way. We need to land." I stopped laughing, and got serious.

"You're right." I said, all humor had left my voice by now "Theres a turret at the back. Ratchet, could you get on it, shoot down the missiles?"

"Yes sir!" He smirked sarcastically, putting his hand up to his forehead and saluting. I pushed him forward as he climbed over the front seats making him fall onto the back seats. He quickly got back up, and found the hatch to the turret, carefully hopping on. I looked at the monitor as a rear view camera popped up. Ratchet had gained the controls pretty quick and was lining up a shot at the missile in the middle of the group. He pulled the trigger.

There was a flash of white, and a shout of 'go faster!' as the blue bullet left the ship and collided with the missile he had aimed for. It exploded, setting off all the other missiles and causing an explosion similar to a mini nuke. The blast was gaining on us, closing the 50 meter gap in just 3 seconds. I pushed forward on the steering wheel, sending us down just as the wave of heat and fire from the explosion reached where our ship would have been. I steadied Peri, and scanned the ground or what passed for it. It was an air city. I quickly found a circular landing pad and slowed down enough, only after checking for more missiles. As we touched down, I looked back to see Ratchet slipping out of the turret, and Clank looking back at me like he was sure we all shouldn't still be here. I opened my mouth to speak, but Peri broke the silence before I had the chance.

"Using the missile coordinates, as well as the death warning, I have managed to hack into the Drophyds radio frequency. This may be useful for your battles on ground"

"Thanks Peri. Just connect them to my nav unit" I said, searching through the glove box for my nav unit. I finally found it, and clipped it onto my wrist. Peri then opened the hatch for us, and we all jumped out, Ratchet flipping and clank landing on his back as he landed. Above us, a drop ship passed stopped at the stop of the stairs ahead of us. 4 drophyd soldiers appeared, and the dropship quickly sped up taking off into the distance. Ratchet took out his silver wrench, I did the same and we both prepared ourselves for the battle ahead.

I swung my wrench around, getting rid of all the smaller sentry robots that swarmed at the bottom of the steps. The Drophyds were closing in on us, but I wasn't worried. After we were clear of the sentries, I looked up to see my attackers. There had been no update to them, which was funny as I thought Tachyon would just send his elite troops straight away… What was he planning that was big enough to keep all his top troops away from us? Ratchet suddenly charged at the Drophyd in front, Clank deploying his Heli-Pack halfway through the run, bringing the sandy Lombax up enough to do a devastating hyper strike. There was a massive crash as metal tore through metal, and Ratchet brang his Omniwrench to the ground. One down, three to go. I threw my wrench at the guard closest to me as Ratchet moved on the the one at the back. My double ended wrench struck the Drophyds suit, breaking the glass and disconnecting his control from the suit, which was now stumbling down to the ground. Ratchet and already taken care of another guard, and now we were surrounding the last one. It charged at me, putting its pincers up in front like he was trying to grab me, or cut me, I wasn't sure. I Jabbed my wrench upwards, and broke the glass to the small aliens safe. I then noticed that a blue bolt of electricity had shot up from where I hit him, flying up in the air at the angle I had my wrench at.

"What was that?" Ratchet asked, seeing the look of confusion etched across my face Was that your wrench?" He asked again, changing the question around a little.

"I have no idea" I replied, looking at the head of my wrench. It was perfectly intact, not hot to the touch, or anything. I was sprung out of my thoughts as I heard a voice shout from somewhere. Ratchet heard it too, and I followed him around the corner, turning left.

"Device! Get your devices here!" A grummel was shouting from his stall, advertising the new groovitron. As we came into his vision, he greeted us with his slightly over enthusiastic voice

"Oh, hey Slick! Devices are special combat items to be used in battle! You care for a pick?" He said, apparently talking to Ratchet. The golden Lombax nodded, and the Grummel bought up his vendor.

"Here we have the new Groovitron! Mesmerise your enemies into a fit of uncontrollable dancing! Only available at grummelnet!" The grummel looked down at us, smiling like he knew he already had a sale. Ratchet eventually nodded and held out his wrench, which was then scanned, and the grummel gave us 3 disco balls.

"And these" The grummel said, handing out 2 pairs of in ear headphones. "Or else you'll dance too!"

"What about me?" Clank asked. I was sure he didn't want to all of a sudden explode out with some funky tunes while we were trying to attack the bad guys. The grummel then handed him a small chip. Clank nodded and put it inside his abdomen compartment, probably to install it.

"Come back anytime, Slick!" The grummel waved us off, still seeming not to notice me.

"Rude" I muttered, as we were out of range of the grummel.

"Yeah, I know..." He looked up before he finished his sentence. There was a Drophyd Cyclocannon. It was a metal ball, but split in the middle where a drophyd hid behind some heavy cover. There were two gatling guns on either side of the Drophyds shield. I was just glad the thing hadn't spotted us yet.

"Put these in!" Watched whispered at me hurriedly. It wouldn't be long before the Cyclo Cannon had turned around just enough to bring us into view. I stuffed the bud like things in my ears, just in time. The Cyclocannon had started firing at us. A spray of yellow like bullets shot out in time from each of the gatling guns. I jumped over the spray as it came over my way, and Ratchet dived out the way throwing a groovitron out just in time, then the shooting stopped. We both heard heavy disco funk, blasting from the ball, lights flashing from each square. The Cyclocannon was now spinning around in time with the thumping beat of the music and I couldn't contain myself. I started laughing as Ratchet took out his Fusion Bomb Glove and threw a couple at the spinning machine. It was in pieces seconds later, revealing a glowing item, floating behind it. I went to the item, as did Ratchet, both of us unexplainably running in time with the upbeat tempo the Groovitron was still spilling out. I picked it up first, examining it for a bit before Ratchet came over. A look of surprise, and a dose of nostalgia washed over his face as he grabbed the item from my hand.

"Is that a Scorpion Fail…" He drifted off, and flicked a switch at the bottom of what seemed to be a handle. Suddenly he swung it, and electricity filled up the air ahead of us, and the shock on Ratchets face was just as clear as mine.

"What was that?" I asked him as he flicked the switch at the bottom.

"It's an electric whip as far as I can tell" He handed the whip to me. "I thought it was a flail, like one I had a couple of years ago, Thats why I swung it."

"Okay… Could I have it?" I asked. I realised I sounded like a kid the moment the words left my mouth, and Ratchet nodded almost reluctantly.

"It'll be handy in battle. Just, be careful of Clank and I" He said, tone serious, like he was remembering a bad memory. I nodded at his comment, putting two and two together that they may have had a bad run in with electricity before.

After the small platform with the whip in it, we came across a bridge with three massive holes in it, and on the opposite side, another 4 Drophyds were coming towards us, but this time, with bright orange shields. Ratchet took out his Heavy Lancer and started shooting, but the bullets just bounced straight off, and the soldiers were still slowly coming towards us. He continued to shoot until we got a message from his - what we thought was - broken Nav Unit.

"Gadgetron admires your persistence, but feels compelled to inform you that your currently selected weapon is ineffective against shielded enemies. Try a stronger weapon, or wait until the enemy is unshielded"

"Great. I don't have any bombs left either, ans your Tesla Claw is still in the ship..." He muttered to nobody in particular. I felt my hands gripping around the handle in my pocket, and decided to try something. I jogged towards our 4 attackers, flicking the switch at the bottom of the handle before whipping the handle up. I bolt of electricity corded itself through the four attackers, stunning them all. I shoved the handle down, sending another both coursing through their suits and we heard 4 glass windows crack simultaneously. Ratchet had reached me, just as the four small mechs lost balance, falling to the ground. We barely noticed the Cyclocannons broken wheels that were among the mess of suits blocking the doorway

"I take that back, I want it" He grinned, holding out a hand. I flicked the switch and pocketed the weapon.

"First come first served" I joked, and he lifted his hands up as if to say 'Well, what can you do?'

We found ourselves walking up some stairs we more shielded soldiers at the top. I swung my whip at the Drophyds at the top just as casually as I'd talk about lunch and Ratchet and I continued through the city. The next section we came across, there were a couple of Drophyd Gunships. They looked like ufo's with giant fans underneath, and had two barrels protruding from the front which I guessed was where the 'gun' part of their name came from. Before the two Drophyds even had time to react, Ratchet had thrown some newly acquired bombs at the giant fans, causing the two ships to hurtle down to the ground, exploding as the came into contact with the platform below them. We continued up some stairs that were to our right, Circular ones leading up to what turned out to be a outlook platform. A dead end.

"Well, where two now? You've done this before, right?" He didn't respond, just kept looking down at the distance before finally turning around to speak. He had his wrench in his hands now and he spoke quickly before jumping off the edge of the platform.

"Follow me"

I was taken aback by his actions until I realised he was sliding down a zipline, using his wrench to do so. I followed his lead, flicking my wrench to make it smaller, and I took my leap of faith.

It was over in a second, and I had a hard landing on the ground, not realising how much speed I actually picked up from it. I looked up to see a gloved hand outstretched towards me. I took it and felt gravity shift as the Lombax hero pulled me up.

"How was that?" he smirked, knowing in full what my answer would be.

"Great! Are there any more around here?" I expected a shrug of his soldiers and a 'I dunno' but instead;

"Well, judging from my past adventures, if theres one. Theres more. And I'm guessing this wont just be a quick adventure. Theres a lot more to taking out Tachyon than we think, so yes. There will be many more of these around… as well as those!" He gestured over to a floating ball which I recognised as a versa target.

"Got a Swingshot? He asked, and I shook my head. I never thought I would need one until now when I realised just how handy they could be. He gestured at me to walk over to him, right at the edge and he took grip of my wrist when I was close enough.

"Do the same. This is gonna pull us over so your gonna need a tight grip. Maybe use both hands." I did as he said and and held on to his left hand and arm. He already had his swingshot glove on his right hand, and he aimed at the floating globe. I almost let go at we were pulled towards the other platform my a green line of electricity which stemmed up to the versa target. The energy dissipated as we were above the platform and I landed on my feet, getting used to falling fast onto my feet. I looked over at Ratchet who nodded at me and we continued walking over this small platform. It turned out we didn't get far before another dead end approached us. It seemed to be another lookout point of sorts, but the view this time, was traffic. I crossed my arms almost glaring at the passing ship, angry about the fact that we had to turn back.

"So, again. What now?" I asked Ratchet, who was again looking off into the distance. I was beginning to get a slightly unnerving 'deja vu' feeling. As if was an answer, Ratchet grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the edge aiming his right hand upwards at an incoming ship. It took me a while to realise that the ship had a Versa target below it, so that means we were going wherever this ship was taking us and I began to wonder if we actually had a plan. A green beam emitted from Ratchets glove, and suddenly, we were pulled forth by the small transport ship. This wind on my face made up for the fact that I was holding on for dear life. It took a while be we finally found a platform that would actually be beneath us, something to land onto, so we braced for impact. I decided as we hit the ground that I definitely have become better at landing on my feet. Survival instinct kicking in I guess. I looked up taking the first chance I could get to access my surroundings. It was just another small platform, nothing on it but a green pad.

"Well great!" Ratchet almost shouted, anger seeping into his voice. "A real dead end. What the hell do we do now?" He looked down at Clank out of habit I guessed, looking for an answer. I looked at Clank too, who seemed to be looking up at something…

"Ratchet… Those creatures are telling us to go… Inside that building." I looked up to see what the Robot was looking at, but I only saw air, and faraway buildings. Ratchet seemed to do the same.

"Creatures… What creatures? Did you get your wires crossed in that crash? He asked his friend, concern edging into his voice before he walked forward to examine the surroundings a bit more. I was curious as to what Clank was on about, but sorta agreed with Ratchet too - nothing was there, and They had been in a Crash pretty recently... I walked ahead, standing beside Ratchet, looking at our surroundings. Was there a zip line somewhere, or..?

We were zapped out of our trance as we heard the sound of metal on ground, like Clank had fallen or something, but instead we found Clank, perfectly intact but… with bring green wings, just a shade darker than his eyes.

"Wow, thats pretty cool. How come you guys never told me about this? I asked the duo, but Ratchet looked as stunned as I did.

"Clank, have you been modifying yourself in private? He asked his friend, cautiously, but a hunch of anger creeped into his voice as well, and Clank picked up on it.

"No. And I do not care much for your tone either." He replied sternly, like a mother scolding her child. Ratchet shrugged it off, too much on his mind at the moment to be worrying about something as small as this. Clank retracted the wings quickly to hop on to Ratchets back. He opened them again before speaking to me.

"I do not believe that this device will be able carry the both of you. If you wait here, I will come back." I nodded at the Robot before the two took off, and began riding through the city. When they were out of sight, I remembered Peri had told me that my nav unit was connected to the services. I looked around the bracket on my wrist for the volume knob, which when I did find, it was on 0. I turned it up and heard a Drophyd Commander blasting orders at his troops.

"The Lombax is airborne, and heading to the Hall of Knowledge. All personnel must do whatever they can to stop them."

"Shit" I muttered to myself. They were planning an ambush on us, and now we were leaving Ratchet alone for 2 minutes, wasting time simultaneously. Then again, Ratchet could easily handle his own… I was snapped out of my thoughts as Clank came back with Ratchets Harness in his hands.

"Put this on, quickly." I did as he said, slipping my arms through the two gaps. I was a small leather thing, purely for the purpose of holding Clank I guessed. As soon as it was on my back, Clank jumped on and I felt the weight of him fairly quickly, although he was lighter than I originally guessed.

"So, what do I do?" I asked him, nerves getting the better of me. I'd never done anything like this before.

"Nothing" He replied. "Just get ready to land when we are at our destination"

"Got it." I said. I built up a small jog before jumping off the platform. "Here goes nothing…" I jumped.

I didn't realise that my eyes were closed until we had been in the air for at least five seconds. I looked up, wondering where we were heading. I soon saw the yellow fur of Ratchet, and I threw him an uncertain wave. Clank didn't slow down as he reached the platform - I don't think he could - but when we were over it, he pulled up suddenly, causing us to stall in the air, but also meaning that I was upright. I landed on my feet, and felt a whole lot lighter as Clank hopped off my back and walked over to Ratchet, who in turn was holding out his hand towards me.

"I'll take that back now" He grinned, but spoke seriously. By the time I had got it off, and Ratchet got it on, we were inside a building, with vendors to each of our sides. Ratchet ran over to the weapons vendor to grab some ammo. It was only a quick wrench scan before we headed off further into the building. Almost straight after the vendors there was a pool of water that we had to cross, and before I even had the chance to say anything, Ratchet had already jumped in. I held my breath as I entered the water and started swimming as fast as I could. I looked after to find that Ratchet was already out of the water, and he was shouting something at me.

"...Mines!" Was all I heard. I stopped swimming, and sure enough, there were two mines ahead of me. They were easy enough to swim round though, and ultimately seemed pointless.

"How can you swim so fast? I asked him, before shaking around a bit to get the worst of the wet off. When I looked up again, I saw Ratchet just pointing to Clank.

"Slightly illegal Hydro-Pack.." The duo grinned.

"Have any relatives that I could borrow, Clank?" I joked not expecting an actual answer

"Yes, but Ratchet killed them all." I was taken aback, not expecting that outcome. The two just laughed at my reaction before explaining.

"They were massive killer robots, I was allowed to!" He laughed a bit more. I shook my head curious as to what else they've done. I'm sure I'll find out sometime… The next room we came across was circular, with a dome roof. I pointed out to Ratchet that there were three sort of rooms with a Circular pad in each of them.

"Tri-Pads. Need to stand on all three within a timer to open something… Should be easier with two people. Lets see what it opens" He dived into the lake, and I followed, but turned right. By the time I had got to my first one, Ratchet was on his second which then opened an underwater hatch. We both swam to the middle, but I knew straight away I couldn't make it through the hole. We didn't know how long it was, and I didn't have an oxygen mask. As if on cue, Ratchet takes off his mask and hands it to me.

"I can swim faster with Clank, so I'll make it" He said, watching me put on the mask. He dived as soon as I got it on, into the depths of this, slightly warm, artificial lake. I soon followed and we eventually made it out of the tunnel. There were a couple of sentries which now lay lifeless on the ground and Ratchet was already on a platform in the middle of yet another circular lake with a domed roof. He was walking around what seemed to be a massive bolt, and it took me a while to realise he was spinning it around. Once he finished, a horrible sonar sound filled up the room and these horrible grey jellyfish type things worse out of the water like platforms. He jumped onto one, the jumped off it, onto a ladder that we wouldn't have been able to reach from the water. I quickly caught up, swimming on top of the the water was much quicker than diving. As I got up the ladder, I saw Ratchet and Clank waiting for me.

"Ladies first!" He gestured to the pipe heading down to what I could only call a map room. I rolled my eyes and jumped down the hole crouching as I landed. I heard a thump next to me signalling Ratchets landing only before a screeching alarm filled up the entire room, almost ear-deafening.

"Great. Just great." I heard Ratchet shout over the alarm as windows broke and Drophyds stormed in.

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So what did you all think of that? leave a review! :3


	5. Up 'n' Out

Hello! I'm sorry it's been so long! I've just been so busy, it's not funny. BUT It is here now! 1000 words or so shorter than normal, but it seems a good length for this chapter. Thanks to everyone who reads this! You are all awesome! Now enjoy the story :3

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Drophyds stormed in throwing gas canisters everywhere, polluting the room with what seemed to be a tear/sleep gas fusion. I shoved my O2 mask onto my head before the green cloud wafted over me and soon after I heard Amel screaming in pain as the gas got to his eyes. I looked back to see the chocolate Lombax fall to the ground, his hands covering his eyes and I had the thought that this wasn't a normal method for our attackers. I turned my attention to the ugly looking drophyds behind me. I felt a sudden burst of anger towards them and proceeded to lash out with my wrench. The four Drophyds were soon squashed on the ground, their last images a silver blur aimed square at their foreheads. The gas was slowly starting to dissipate, and I noticed an escape pod in the background. I eyed it up before turning to the ragdoll on the floor. I picked up my friend, holstering him over my soldier as Clank accessed the Halls databases. Luckily, the pod was unlocked. I sat Amel in the main seat, inputting the coordinates of where our ship lay a few kilometers away at the edge of the city, but before I even had finished typing down the location I heard a massive bang on the locked metal door. They were trying to get in. I sped up the process, quickly finishing with the pod and running over to Clank.

"Any luck Pal?" I asked, reloading my heavy lancer. When I looked up I saw a slightly defeated face.

"No… only a recipe for Lombax brains with eggs, and salsa by Mrs Alvaro…"

"Juanita from Dreadzone?" I was confused. I thought she liked me after I saved her life...

"Her mother, I think" Clank answered my question, like he usually does. I thought about it for a second before another bang from the metal door snapped me back to the situation.

"C'mon Pal." I picked the robot up, and ran over to the escape pod, placing him on Amels' lap.

"There's not enough space for the 3 of us. I'll find another way to the ship, just make sure he's alright. He'll need some nanotech. I'm sure Peri will have a bottle somewhere"  
"Okay. I understa-" A massive explosion rang around the room, followed by another bang as the metal door came crashing down to the floor. I pressed the red button and slammed the pods door shut. They flew off just as the first 3 cyclocannons came through the door. I got ready to dodge their yellow spray of bullets, but the smoke cleared and I saw the army of Drophyds behind them. Fighting all of them at once would be stupid. As well as time consuming… I took out a groovitron. Heavy rock poured out from the small, rainbow coloured ball, and in the next second the Drophyds were on their hands and knees, breakdancing. I had to force myself not to laugh and run through the hall, packed full of my dancing opponents. I lay down bombs as I ran, which will be set off when I please, which will be as soon as the music stops. I got through the crowd and looked back at the breakdancing group, spinning around countless times. Knocking into each other but never stopping. The music finally stopped and they all fell to the ground, some looking at me in anger. Others accepting their fate. I turned around to run whilst triggering the mines. There was a massive explosion behind me as I ran, singing the fur on the tip of my tail a bit, but it was a clear road outside now. I was literally in a hall, that was decorated in facts and doorway to enclosures. This was the actual hall of knowledge. I quickly got outside and looked at my surroundings. The only way to go was left as the right was blocked by and impeding army of Drophyds. I threw my last Groovitron behind me and nailed it. It was a long, straight stretch of platform, and I wasn't sure just where I was heading. 'Away from them at least' I thought.

Pain shot up my tail and unbalanced me as a laser nearly cut it off. A gunship was behind me, gaining, and I was on the ground, holding my tail. I got up quickly and continued to run. I sprinted at my highest speed and found myself closing in on the end of the platform, as well as the gunship closing in on me. There was air traffic ahead of me, but no other way to go as the gunship was right on my tail, so… I took a leap of faith.

I landed on a truck, denting the roof as I fell at least 20 meters before landing on it, and somehow grabbing onto the railing of the truck. I reached forward and grabbed onto the next bar. It was sorta like being on top of monkey bars. The truck was going at an unnerving speed so I tried to hurry up the process.

Left arm.

Right arm.

Left arm.

Right arm.

Left arm.

I looked up briefly just to check where the gunship was, but I then realised why we were going so fast. The truck had veered away from the traffic. The gunship was out of sight. The truck was on its own. Was that even legal? I continued forth.

Right arm.

Left am.

Right arm.

Left arm.

I was now at the front of the ship. Now to hijack this truck. I slid down the left side of the truck and kicked the passenger window open. I slid through, broken glass only just scraping my back, and I looked at the driver. He was dead. The robot had been shot in the head, the windshield was broken, and his foot was still stuck on the accelerator! I tried to pull his foot off to no avail, then slammed both of mine on the brakes to find that nothing happened. I was in a death trap.

Just great.

I sat on the dead robot and gripped the steering wheel. The truck was going too fast for the speedometer so I had no idea how was I was going. I slowly turned the wheel and went in the most massive arc I had even been in. It took a whole, but I was now facing the city at least. I took my o2 mask off and still had the feeling of acceleration as I approached the city. I broke the door open so I could jump out if I had to, and looked ahead to see how I could get out of this alive. The answer came quickly. There was a versa target ahead which I could grapple onto… Either that or it's death by crashing into the hall of knowledge itself. I took my chances and jumped as soon as I saw it. It was a while away, but I was definitely going fast enough. I aimed my swingshot with both hands at the floating globe and hoped for the best.

It grappled to the target, and I found myself doing multiple loop de loops around it. about 37 I counted before I finally slowed down enough for it to become just a swing. I Almost vomited. There was a banner just ahead of me, advertising some new product. It would make a perfect zipline down the ground, so I shifted my weight to swing towards it. Finally, I detached from the versa target and reached for my wrench, which thankfully was still there, and I zipped down the banner to a platform. I landed on my hands and knees and straight out vomited as all that motion sickness caught up with me. I spat a few times to get the horrible acidic taste out of my mouth before I looked up. I was on the same platform we started out on. At the top of the stairs with Peri being a short run away and I thanked my lucky stars that I wasn't lost in the city.

"Clank!" I shouted as I neared my friends. "You would not believe what I have just been through!" I puffed.

"I think you find I will" Clank replied, which made me smile. We had been through enough together to know that pretty much anything could happen.

"But... Amel is not waking up" The robot finished his sentence, and I only just realised that Amel was still dead to the world in the escape pod.

"Well... Quick. Prepare Peri for flight… I think I just blew up the hall of knowledge"

"You what?" He began, but ran to the ship regardless to set up some coordinates in space.

I went over and picked our new friend up, placing him gently on the back seat of Peri. I hopped into the drivers seat and we saw gunships come our way as the hatch closed. I gripped the wheel, and we took off, accelerating upwards at our top speed, exiting out of the planets atmosphere within seconds. As soon as we got out of the atmosphere, I flicked on the autodrive so that we were still getting away from the planet, and went to the back seat to see Amel.

"Any ideas Pal?" I asked as Clank climbed over the front chairs.

"Unfortunately no… I have given him the nanotech, so he is healthy. Just in a deep sleep."

"Right… Great… Okay..." I started thinking, having a conversation with myself in my head.

'What could I do?'

'Wake him up.'

'How though?'

'What do you hate having done to you?'

'Pain, duh.'

'What's really painful?'

'A bullet to the head.'

'Okay… What's painful, but not deathly?'

'A… Pinch?'

'More painful?'

'Uhh… someone pulling your tail'

'Oh he's not going to like this...'  
"Nope he's not.." I said aloud.  
"Not what?" Clank asked, knowing me enough to have a bit of fear for what I was going to do to Amel.  
"Something" was all I said as I flipped Amel around. It felt weird gripping his tail, but I knew it was for a good cause. Clank had caught on and covered his eyes as I pulled. A shriek rang throughout the ship. There was a blur as Amel flipped around and grabbed the collar of my shirt. Lombax survival instincts at their best. I probably would've done the same thing  
"What the hell-!" He stopped shouting when he saw it was me and let my shirt go. "Oh… Well what the hell was that for?" He said again, quieter, but still filled with irritation.  
"You were drugged, sorta… We needed to wake you up. Sorry bout that…"  
"The gas was stronger than we anticipated. A simple pinch or slap on the face did nothing." Clank explained the situation a bit better. Amel nodded, slumped back down onto the back seat and sighed.

"Did we get anything useful from that escapade?"

"Just a recipe for Lombax brains… With eggs and salsa." Clank answered his question and the mood in the ship dimmed down. Amel hopped over the seats and sat at the wheel and I joined on the passenger seat.

"I believe Ratchet has a great story of how he blew up the hall of knowledge… Which I have yet to hear" Clank said aloud, and Amel looked at me with a smile, disbelief in his eyes.

"You what?"

"Yeah… I put my O2 mask on when the gas filled up the room. I pulled you into an escape pod, and sent you and Clank off to Peri whilst I found a way out, which turned out to be a long dragstrip of a platform. I ran down that, barely escaping a Drophyd gunship but when it ended I had to jump off into the traffic. A leap of faith. I landed on a truck and when I finally got into the drivers cockpit, he was dead and his foot was stuck to the accelerator. I did a massive ark to get back to the city and when I approached it I had two options. 1: I by crashing into the Hall of Knowledge. 2: jumping out and latching onto a versa target. I chose the 2nd option, did 37 loop de loops, used an advertisement banner as a zipline, vomited, and found you guys… And that truck blasted right into and nearly through, the Hall of Knowledge." By the end of the story Amel was staring at me pretty much speechless. But he eventually found something to say.

"And that's pretty much your normal day? Blowing stuff up?"

"Uh… Yup, pretty much" I said, stretching my arms. Amel opened his mouth to reply, but I never got to hear his witty comment as a massive shock ran through the plane as the left wing got up under fire.

"Shields are down to 50% and the left wing missile launcher is malfunctioning" Peri updated us before Amel shifted his attention back to flying and swerved down to avoid colliding with a brown plated ship. The monitor fizzled for a bit before an ugly looking robot came into view. He had a massive chin, a scared eye and… A pirate hat on?

"Ahh... So we meet again! Lombax," The robot spoke. His voice rumbling through the static of the speakers. "Did you like that little trip to the Kerchu home planet we sent you on? I'm really amazed you got out alive if I'm honest…"

"Oh just shut it, Slag. I'll just kick your crews asses over and over again until you decide not to cross paths with me."

"Oh we'll see. But I… I see another? Two stray Lombaxes? A feast we will be having tonight lads! Charge up the cannons and prepare for battle!" The screen fizzled for a bit before turning off.

"Are these the pirates you were talking about, Amel?" I questioned the pilot before he jolted the wheel to the right, barely missing a asteroid that had come our way.

"Yeah… They want to eat me for some reason. I've heard we make a great meal"

"Too many people seem to think that… Personally, I don't think so.

"Same here…"  
Three ships came into view ahead, and amel flicked a switch on the dashboard causing 4 buttons to pop up on the rear side of the steering wheel. He held down the top right button and a spray of orange and blue came from the front end of the ship, hitting each ship until they became space junk. I strapped myself to my seat as 3 more came into view, returning fire. Amel jerked the wheel towards him, sending us up, although in space you can't really tell the difference... I looked back to see a ship larger than ours in hot pursuit, gaining on us as the seconds wore by. But Amel had a trick up his sleeve. He pushed his foot down on the far right pedal, and engaged the thrusters. When I looked back again, the ship was just a dot in our sights. But my celebrations were cut short as another trio of pirates came into our view, 2 more flanking us on each side. Suddenly, blue and orange spewed out of Peri as Amel held down the button to do so. The colours hit the three ships within seconds, and the two that were flanking us got caught by the space junk Amel had just created. We continued forward. More and more ships came our way, all doomed the same fate as when Amel was flying - There was no way he was going to loose. Especially not with all the practise he's had.

It had been about 20 minutes now. The onslaught of pirates had dwindled in the recent battles, and we actually saw some other pirate ships picking up all the scrap metal we left behind us. Amel put Slag's number in on the monitor and we waited, but soon enough, we heard an angry wail from a fat angry space pirate.

"THIS ISN'T OVER YOU CHEAT!" He shouted and I went for the volume dial to turn down the screaming. How he got that much out of the speakers, I don't know.

"There will be no more need for any more deaths of your men. Just let us be, and you'll still have people who look up to you who aren't grogged up on… Well, grog." Amel spoke calmly, and formally. Like a general contacting the opposing forces and asking them to stand down.

"YOU KNOW FULL WELL THIS ISN'T OVER, LOMBAX! I WILL GET YOU-" He cut Slag of and burst into laughter, and I couldn't help but laugh with him. Slag was an idiot, that much I can see.

"He hates it when I'm so formal" Amel said when he finally calmed down. "I literally got into a chat with his First mate and asked him what Slag hates the most. Formalities was in the top ten, as well as my name… And lists because soon after he came into the room and screamed at the First mate… Pete, I think his name is…"

"Haha, great. But how many times has this happened? You've dodged all their attacks, like you know they're coming!"

"Yeah.. Like I said. When I ran away from Tachyon, they were the best way for me to release my anger. I had a one day battle with them which got on the news. 'Mystery Hero Cuts Pirate Raids In Half By Destroying Half Their Fleet. In One Day.' - Literally, that was the title. I learnt quickly to say the least…"

"You're so modest. Next time they come it's my turn. I had some experience with space combat myself."

"Oh have you now? Mr hypocrite." He said, his tone sly. I punched him lightly on the shoulder and shot him a jokeful smile.

"Now, c'mon. We need to get to Murkow."

"Yeah yeah, I know. Co-ordinates have been inputted. It'll take us a good half hour to get there, and after what just happened, I think you need a nap"

I laughed just a bit before realising how tired I actually was. I rubbed my eyes to stay awake, but to no avail and soon enough, my head was laying back on the seat…

My dreams were full of red. I think I was back on Kortog… I was running. Along that long platform I was on before. I looked behind me and saw Tachyon. He had Clank in a birdcage, and Amel was underneath his left foot… I stopped and turned round, preparing to save my friends, but there was only time… for one… I had to think fast. I had to save Clank. No. I had to save Amel. No, Clank.

Amel.

Clank.

Amel.

Clank.

Their names were spinning around my head and I felt dizzy, but I managed to look up in time… to see a blade run through Amels chest and Clanks' head role to the floor… He was advancing on me now… I had failed my friends… I looked up once again to see Tachyon right above me, shouting obscenities at me in another language. I looked down, accepting my fate… It never came.

A flash of green slammed into Tachyon and they both evaporated into smoke… I was alone…

Alone…

Alone…

"We're here!" I heard Amel shout and I jumped out of my dream in a cold sweat, causing him to burst into a fit of laughter. I gave him a complementary smack on the face, and his laughter subsided.

"So we're here" He said, in an inside voice now, rather than shouting into my ear.

"So we are.." I responded slowly, looking up at the deep blue planet in front of me. I guessed it had a tropical climate. I have seen enough of them to have an educated guess, that was nearly always right.

"Hey, you okay?" Amel asked me, in a serious tone which caught me aback.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." I half lied, remembering that horrible half hour nightmare… But what did it mean…

"It's just I saw you shuffling round a lot in your sleep. I only didn't wake you because you needed it. Nightmare perhaps?"

"Yeah… to say the least…" I told him about the dream. Clank and him dying… Then what I guessed was Qwark saving us…

"Got any idea what that could mean?" I asked him, and he thought about it for a little. Opening and closing his mouth a couple of time to rethink his words.

"Maybe… You're scared of losing me, but you think what Qwark is the one who will help us from Tachyon the most, since we're just about to meet up with him?"  
"Yeah, that'd make sense…" I thought about it for a while more… "What, what about Clank?" I asked, curious to see what he thought.

"Oh, that's how you can tell its a dream! Clanks always on your back - You two are inseparable."

"Haha, yeah. Thats definitely right" I laughed it off, although secretly being glad to have such a great friend like Amel. I'm glad we crossed paths.

"Did I miss something?" Clank made us both jump as he popped up from the back seat and clammered over. He laughed at us as we rubbed our heads which had made contact with the ceiling seconds earlier. We both glared at him for a second but could help smiling at the whole situation, laughing at the smallest of things… We were tired…

"So what's the plan? What are we actually going to do when we get there? They'll find us just like that!" I clicked my fingers to exaggerate my point.

"Just relax. I'll Cloak Peri. You can put a coal on yourself, and with Clank on your back you can pass as an elderly hunchbacked oldie. And I can do my Cazar act that I used to do back on Tlekelimn."

"So we're stealthing it? Pretty much?" I asked him.

"This will be a first for Ratchet" Clank blurted before laughing.

"What do you normally do at planets?" Amel asked, curiosity piping up. I was just about to answer him before

"Normally he chooses a big gun, intimidates the wildlife, kills any attackers and ends up wherever the path takes him" Clank giggled again, as did Amel. I hit them both.

After they both calmed down, Clank was asked to go into the back and get the Cloaks we would be wearing, and I linked up to the grummelnet servers to get some ammunition for our weapons. 356 bolts later We had everything we needed, but a rumbling noise filled the car.

"Uhh… what was that? I asked Amel, who had his left hand on his stomach.

"Mister Hunger" He said, rubbing his stomach. "Man I wish we had some food…"

I pulled out a can of 'baked beans' whatever they were and handed it to Amel.

"I'm sure it'll taste fine. We'll go somewhere nice after Murkow hopefully. Some sorta restaurant to fill us up properly."  
Sounds good. I know this fantastic restaurant on Tlekelimn if you're willing to take a risk…"  
"Are you nut's? Danger is my middle name" I smirked, trying my best to keep a straight face.

"Alright, Ratchet Danger… What's your last name?" He asked.

"Danger" I replied, not looking him in the eye, hoping he would get the message. And he did…

"Alright, Ratchet Danger Danger! I Amekairal Mecktose, Challenge you to a feast off! On the… Whenever we have free time day!" He laughed and I nodded before...

"Amekairal?" I asked him. "Is that your full name?"

"Yeah, I only normally tell close friends… So welcome to the club! But yeah, Amel for short. Else it's a bit of a mouthful…"

"Yeah… Well, Ratchet Danger Danger accepts your challenge!" I laughed

"Great. That will be a day to look forward to."

"Yeah"

* * *

So, whadd'ya think? Reviews are good too! :3


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